Daniel Cormier doesn’t think Israel Adesanya’s UFC 276 performance was as bad as many thought.
Adesanya vowed to do something spectacular and said his performance would be similar to Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin. However, it was far from that as it was a lackluster fight with not much action but it was Adesanya winning by decision.
After the fight, Adesanya said he had an off-night but for Cormier, he doesn’t think all the blame is on the champ. Instead, he thinks Cannonier was there to not get finished.
Daniel Cormier Provides Another Perspective For Adesanya vs Cannonier
“So many people have said this, and it gets a bit cliche, but it takes two to tango,” Cormier said on his show DC & RC. “If Jared Cannonier is going to cruise to a loss, how is it Izzy’s responsibility to do more? Now, I thought Cannonier early had some moments, but they just weren’t sustained. He could not get it going to a level or to a degree that could truly challenge Adesanya.”
🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱 “What are y’all fake caring about today?” – @lilduval pic.twitter.com/eXbhQqaOno
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) July 6, 2022
“Adesanya is one of the most talented counter-strikers in the business,” Cormier continued, “so you’ve got to be very guarded with your engagements because if you don’t, you end up like Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker in the first fight and Kelvin Gastelum to a lesser degree.”
Israel Adesanya Fought a Smart Fight According to Daniel Cormier
Even though the fight wasn’t full of action, Cormier believes Adesanya fought a good fight as reflected in the scorecards. The “Last Stylebender” won all five rounds according to one of the judges. Cormier also thinks this is what happens to dominant champs as you will get lackluster fights.
“I thought he fought a good fight,” Cormier said. “I thought he was smart. I thought he dominated the fight. He won the fight four rounds to one on both cards and then the other card was five rounds to zero. What more can you want from a guy in defending his championship but winning all the rounds? The problem is, when you become a guy like Israel – and Anderson Silva went through the same thing, Jon Jones went through the same thing – you become so dominant that those dominating performances become a bit lackluster.”
