Former two-weight UFC champion Henry Cejudo thinks Israel Adesanya 's fights are underwhelming and the UFC should stop promoting him.
Adesanya made the fourth defence of his 185lb belt at UFC 276 earlier this month by outpointing Jared Cannonier in a fight that lacked any significant action. Many fans were spotted leaving the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas before the final round started, with actor Chris Pratt even criticising the UFC champion for his performance.
Cejudo, who retired from the UFC in 2020 but is plotting a comeback, thinks Adesanya should not be headlining pay-per-view events because of his recent performances. “It’s crazy when you come out to The Undertaker. You didn’t put a performance on Saturday night. It was lame,” he said on The Triple C & Schmo Show.
“Main events are special. If he’s not performing, UFC stop pushing this dude. He’s a decision maker. The only fight I can say where he really beat somebody really good was beating (Robert) Whittaker and knocking him out. Paulo (Costa), I don’t know where the hell his head was at. I’m still not impressed with this dude.
“He hypes a lot and doesn’t deliver. It’s been like that with him for a minute now. If you’re going to call people out and do all this other stuff, finish them. Put a beating on people. Be spectacular. People look more forward to his entrance than his actual fight."
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Adesanya, who has gone the distance in his past four UFC fights and is without a stoppage win in almost two years, wants to defend his belt against former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira next. Pereira put himself in pole position to fight Adesanya after knocking out Sean Strickland on the UFC 276 card, moving up to No.6 in the middleweight rankings with the win.
Cejudo said of the potential matchup: "Both of these dudes are just strikers with semi-good defence, but I’m going to have to go with Pereira because Israel never demonstrates any kind of takedowns and things like that. He’s another one-dimensional guy that’s good at what he does.
Adesanya's only UFC loss has come at light heavyweight against Jan Blachowicz and Cejudo thinks the middleweight champion's opponents need to use that fight as a blueprint to beat Adesanya. "It’s a shame that these dudes at 185 pounds can’t take the fight where Jan has taken him.," he added. "You take him into deep waters and it’s over."
