Las Vegas, NV — UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who returns to the octagon this weekend at UFC 248, has long contended with the notion that he’s just a “hype job.”
He’s heard the arguments, that opponents have been hand-picked. That Anderson Silva was past his prime. But ‘The Last Stylebender’ doesn’t shy away from the criticism. In fact, he told media outlets including Cageside Press at the UFC 248 media day, he embraces it.
“I’m still hype. I’m always hype. People, I still see it. I still hear it. ‘He’s just another hype job.’ But I like hype,” he explained at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “Hype has been part of my life throughout my youth, and as an adult. I like hype, I even like the word hype. I like to hype things up.”
“I just embrace it,” he added, reiterating that he loves hype. Be it in dancing or fighting. “I am the hype train. I keep running people over.”
He’ll attempt to do that against Yoel Romero this weekend. After that, the path for Adesanya is a little less clear. Paulo Costa is out. Jared Cannonier is out, possibly until the end of the year. Adesanya was taken aback by that news.
“Get some supplements from Paulo Costa,” he quipped. “He might come back in two months.”
Of course, there’s always the potential super-fight against light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The two have sparred on social media, but thus far, the fight doesn’t appear to be any closer to actually being made.
Adesanya, for his part, isn’t entirely sold on the idea it seems. “There’s other guys in the division. There’s guys coming up. Younger ones, like the [Edmen] Shahbazyan kid. And there’s a few other ones, like The Joker [Jack Hermansson], he’s got a fight coming up. Chris Weidman just came back down. I like that.”
“I want to clean out the division. I’m not going to be one of those guys that holds up the division for no reason,” he continued. “So I’m doing right by the division by being an active champion. A true champion.”
The plan for 2020, he added, is the “same as last year, just keep winning. Winning is a habit. And I keep winning.”
Despite the talk of Adesanya’s “hype” there’s little to criticize about his upcoming match-up with Romero. Unless, of course, it’s the Cuban’s record of late. He’s 1-3 in his last four fights, and has earned a title shot off two losses.
However, “it’s not really about the record,” Adesanya countered. “That’s why I even chose that fight. His record’s sh*t. He’s got four losses, and twelve wins. I won’t say sh*t, but records don’t really mean sh*t to me. It’s more about the challenge. And for me, yes there is pressure, but it’s not about keeping my record intact. That’s not what the pressure is. The pressure is other things.”
“I like pressure. Pressure is an acquired taste. It’s something that I’m used to. Even this,” he said, referring to the throngs of media. “A lot of people don’t deal with pressure very well. They will fold.”
Even the media day, said Adesanya, with its sea of reporters, would cause some people to fold. “This is nothing to me. I’m just used to it. I said it in my first UFC fight, pressure makes diamonds. I’m still shining.”
Watch the full UFC 248 media day scrum with Israel Adesanya above!
