If you’re one of the people who trashed Israel Adesanya following his disappointing fight with Yoel Romero at UFC 248, well, the middleweight champ has some choice words for you.

Adesanya defends performance

Due to Romero’s ridiculous power and wrestling abilities, there was a fair amount of buzz for his bout with the  Adesanya, leading up to the March 7th card. In fact, a big reason Adesanya went out of his way to secure a fight with Romero, was because the consensus was the contender would pose a serious threat to the vaunted striker.

But, in the bout itself, Romero came out extremely tentative and for most of the fight, he looked to counter. The scrap featured very few memorable exchanges, and both men took some heat from fans and observers for the lackluster bout.

Well, recently Adesanya spoke with MMA Fighting and the widely panned fight was brought up again. While talking about Romero’s approach in the bout, “The Last Stylebender” said this.

“I was there to fight. I was there actually attacking, probing, being smart about it. His first chance was when he actually punched my eyeball and sent my eyeball into the back of my skull.

That was his chance. Anyone could see, ‘He’s compromised, attack the guy, he’s compromised,’ but he stood there still for like another two minutes.

“That just showed me he didn’t want to fight. He was just hoping I’d make the same mistake twice. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. It was like he was expecting me to stand there and get hit.

Bro, you stood there, you forced my hand to move, I made a mistake. I got a hard head, he didn’t drop me. That hit me in the eye completely.

Did not wobble me. Did not shake me. Did not rock me. Did not drop me.”

“I thought OK, be smart about how you enter next time,” Adesanya explained. “Don’t enter straight away, down the middle, angle off to the side first before you attack, or make sure your foot is in the right spot before you attack so his left hand’s not there.

He was never able to land that throughout the whole fight again, if you notice.”

Adesanya isn’t the only person who’s argued that the blame for the disappointing fight should be laid at the feet of Romero. Case in point, Dana White blasted Romero for what transpired after the card.

The champ lights up his critics

And what about people who booed the bout at UFC 248? Or who trashed Adesanya for his performance? The star had this fiery response.

“I don’t give a f*ck what these drunks are thinking about in the crowd, all these fans, quote-unquote, I don’t really give a f*ck what they think,” Adesanya said.

“I know for me, I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself at night. That’s what matters.”

There you have it. Up next, Adesanya is expected to face Paulo Costa, and it’s hard to imagine that fight not being a barn burner.

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