UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya is set to defend his title at UFC 276 against Jared Cannonier, and The Last Stylebender took a shot a the ‘Tik-Tok’ generation and their approach to combat sports ahead of the fight night.

Many causal fight fans enjoy watching small snippets of fights and in particular massive knockouts, which doesn’t necessarily give a full picture of how the contest was going.

Adesanya in particular has taken umbrage with people who judge his kickboxing loss against a fighter who would end up signing for the UFC.

Here is what Israel Adesanya had to say ahead of his UFC 276 bout against Jared Cannonier regarding the ‘Tik-Tok generation.’

Read More: UFC 276: Israel Adesanya, Fight Card, Date, Rumours, UK Time, Tickets and More

UFC 276 Poster

Credit: UFC


Israel Adesanya on Tik-Tok Fans

Speaking at a press conference ahead of UFC 276, Adesanya discussed the UFC rise of the man who scored a knockout against him in Kickboxing: Alex Pereira.

He said with regards to a potential MMA showdown with his former foe: “This isn’t kickboxing, this is mixed martial arts. These ain’t big pillow gloves, these are four-ounce deadly weapons that I can’t wait to drive through his face after I go through Jared Cannonier.

“I don’t like this narrative of, ‘It’s too quick, it’s too quick for Pereira,’ but look, Jiri [Prochazka] just fought for and won the belt in his third fight in the UFC. Anderson [Silva] did it in his second fight. So that’s fine, [Pereira] is new to MMA. 

“I’ve been in this game a long time and this TikTok generation has a 15-second memory. All they see is a knockout, but they don’t watch the first fight or the second fight before the finish.”

It remains to be seen if Pereira will get a contest against his former kickboxing foe, but it would certainly be an intriguing story for the UFC to tell.

Before that though, Adesanya needs to get through his 185-pound challenger Cannonier, who himself presents quite the threat to the title reign of The Last Stylebender.

Adesanya enters the contest as the -365 favourite, compared to Cannonier’s +300 underdog status, but there is always the possibility for a shock knockout on the night.

Read More: UFC 276 betting odds include potential shocks on the night 


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