“Let me show who the real one is” – Israel Adesanya and Stephen A Smith have a funny face-off ahead of UFC 281
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Israel Adesanya and Stephen A Smith in a friendly face-off
Israel Adesanya is everywhere promoting his upcoming pay-per-view fight against his nemesis Alex Pereira at UFC 281. The UFC champ stops by the ESPN studio to sit down for an interview with Stephen A Smith and the two have a blast behind the scenes.
Israel Adesanya is jokingly possessive about his UFC middleweight belt. The Last Stylebender drops by the ESPN studio to do the First Take show with Stephen A Smith ahead of his fight at UFC 281 in the “Meccah of Fighting”, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. After the two got done with their interview, Izzy and Stephen A had some fun behind the scenes.
The two jovial characters had a friendly face-off as they stared down each other’s eyes. Adesanya let the ESPN host hold the UFC belt for the face-off but not for long. Izzy immediately grabbed it and joked, “Give me that, let me show them who the real one is.” Both of them burst out laughing and Stephen A gave an honest opinion on how he felt carrying the belt.
Smith found out how the heavy belt was and immediately knew the sport wasn’t for him to mess around with. “This is where the acting comes into play. Acting like I can do this. The damn belt’s heavy,” said Stephen A Smith. The ESPN host should have been carrying the fake UFC belt as Izzy very recently revealed he doesn’t fly with his original belt.
@stephenasmith can confirm: the belt is heavy ? pic.twitter.com/R4uxtSsXx6
— First Take (@FirstTake) November 10, 2022
Israel Adesanya is not afraid to strike with Alex Pereira
One of the biggest threats that Adesanya has to face against Alex “Poatan” Pereira is to stand toe-to-toe with who arguably has the best-left hand in the division right now. Pereira’s left hook is widely known as the “touch of death”. Given that The Stylebender is not a fighter who likes to take the fight to the mat, it would be interesting to see him exchange with Pereira on the feet.
Stephen A Smith, ESPN’s host wonders the same. When Smith asked Izzy about playing to Alex’s strength at UFC 281, Stylebender had a witty reply saying, “Well, he’s playing into my hands as well.” Izzy reveals he has the confidence to strike with “Poatan” and doesn’t believe he’d make the same mistakes as his past fights in the kickboxing days.
Also read: “Cleared the way for him” – Israel Adesanya believes Alex Pereira owes his success in MMA to him
Pereira has two wins over Adesanya in his professional career. However, under different sets of rules in kickboxing. UFC is now Adesanya’s home and Pereira is fairly new to the sport of mixed martial arts. Adesanya is a slight favorite heading into this championship bout which actually surprises the UFC given Pereira’s past wins over him.
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Prateek Athanur
(2944 Articles Published)