Israel Adesanya warns of "wolf tickets" ahead of middleweight title defence

By Christopher Reive

Israel Adesanya has warned of the latest challenger to his UFC middleweight throne selling “wolf tickets” ahead of his bout at UFC 293 in Sydney on Sunday.

American Sean Strickland will be the man to try and dethrone Adesanya, getting a shot at the title on the back of a two-fight winning streak which included an impressive second-round TKO win in his last appearance.

While the expectation has been that Strickland will need to mix in his grappling to trouble Adesanya, the fighter himself has indicated he would be inclined to test his striking against the champion. It’s a familiar storyline for Strickland, who was in a similar position against Alex Periera who, like Adesanya, came into the UFC after a decorated kickboxing career. In that bout, Strickland tested himself on the feet against Pereira and was caught with the Brazilian’s trademark left hook in the first round.

Speaking of the match-up, Adesanya welcomed the threat of Strickland’s wrestling and said he expected it to feature at some point in the bout.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m yet to choke (someone) out. That’s one thing that’s on my list. So, I hope he wrestles. If not, cool; stand and bang, do the man dance, as you will,” Adesanya said.

“He’s selling wolf tickets when he talks about that, by the way. I don’t think he’s going to man dance with me and, if he does, I’m a better dancer than him.”

Sunday’s bout will be Adesanya’s 11th UFC title fight in a row, and his 16th fight with the promotion since making his debut in 2018.

He holds wins over five of the top seven challengers in the middleweight division, with just Strickland and South African Dricus du Plessis – who was initially slated to be Adesanya’s opponent for this card – yet to stand across from him.

On Strickland, Adesanya was unflattering of his opponent for the weekend. The 84kg champion, who will be the last of six fighters training out of Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym to compete on the card, said he expected to get the job done before the end of the last of their scheduled five five-minute rounds.

“There’s a few options there. Like, when you visualize these things, there’s a few options; a few timelines down which this could go. Yeah, 100 per cent there’s a few of them, but there’s three main ones that I’m running on; I can’t tell you guys but I guarantee you I’ll finish this guy,” he said.

“Sean fights guys and looks good against them because they let him look good against them. They let him get in their head. But I’ve done this how many times? This is déjà vu to me.

“What I really want to do is just fight. I really want to fight and showcase, and also watch my team showcase as well before me.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission