At UFC 276 last month, Adesanya successfully defended his championship. However, the champion has come under fire for “running” and “dancing” throughout the main event.
Sean Strickland criticized Israel Adesanya for “running” during his most recent middleweight championship defense.
Adesanya defeated Jared Cannonier at UFC 276 last month during his sixth defense of the 185-pound title. Before the final round, spectators were seen leaving the T-Mobile Arena. Many urged the UFC to intervene due to Adesanya’s “boring” style.
Pereira and Adesanya are scheduled to square off on October 15 in an effort to give Adesanya a real challenge he might not be able to ‘dance’ around.
Strickland suffered a setback at UFC 276 when Alex Pereira knocked him out.
Strickland told The Schmo: “I’m excited, man. Jared’s a solid guy. He’s a f***ing hell of a fighter. It’s kind of a shame Izzy ran from him and made a really boring fight out of it, but it’s not going to be like that when me and him fight.”
“It ain’t going to be boring. I ain’t going to f**king run around and dance around the ring like f***ing Peter Pan with painted nails. We’re going to f***ing fight.
“I know Jared lost to Izzy because f***ing twinkle toes, Peter Pan with his painted nails, his manicures, ran around the cage, fought like a bi***. I ain’t going to f***ing do that. Me and Jared, we’re going to stand in the middle and we’re going to do the f***ing man dance, and someone’s going to go to sleep.”
In case you think he’s joking – he’s not. Israel Adesanya literally paints his nails though there might be more to it than queerbaiting.
Martial artists like Israel Adesanya, Yoel Romero, Chris Leben, Ramsay Nijen, Jeff Monson, Chuck Lidda, Ian Mccall, and Andrei Arlovski all have competed with painted nails before.
However, in spite of what you might think – this isn’t really an attempt to be fashionable – there’s a reason why they paint their nails. The paint also works as a protective layer preventing the nails from cracking or splitting up. Which is a huge thing when there’s 50% of your paycheck on the line.
A layer of nail polish works as a hardener for the nail, minimizing the danger of it breaking.
Strickland is not alone in his criticism of Adesanya, Jon Jones questioned why Adesanya is allowed to compete with manicured nails.
“Bro, serious question. How does Commission allow this dude to compete with those long-a** nails?”
Adesanya hit back at Jones. He told reporters at the post-fight press conference:
“F*** Jon Jones, f*** him I don’t want to hear about that b****, what does he want to talk about my nails for?”
“He’s just jealous and insecure, he’s a f***boy. He could never rock something like this, he’s a b****. F*** him, I don’t give a f*** what he thinks. The heavyweight world champion Francis Ngannou backed Adesanya as well. He said that Jones that the latter had been sitting back.”