Israel Adesanya criticizes ‘fickle’ and ‘wishy-washy’ MMA fans

UFC interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya believes that most MMA fans are fickle and disloyal.

Speaking to MMA Fighting at the UFC Hall of Fame ceremony last weekend, the interim titleholder looked back on the moment he realized how “wishy-washy” fight fans are.

He says it struck him ahead of his 2018 fight with Marvin Vettori — his second UFC bout.

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“I’ll tell you a story,” he began. “Before I fought Marvin Vettori, Marvin goes out [on stage] on the marker. There’s a curtain. Fan’s can’t see me. [I can hear them yelling] ‘Go Marvin, f**k this motherf**ker up! Get that bonus, baby, yeah!’ I’m hearing this the whole time. Marvin walks out, and I walk to the curtain and step on the prep point. The same exact voice with the same exact script he said to Marvin said to me ‘Go Israel, f**k this motherf**ker up, go get that bonus!’ And in that moment, that’s when I realized, these n***as don’t give a f**k about me.

“They do not give a f**k about me,” Adesanya continued. “All this is ‘just bleed.’ They want this sh*t. This is a mob mentality with fans. One-on-one, it’s different. I’ll save these stories for later, but this is the moment I realized this is what it’s like. [The fans are] fickle. They go wishy-washy. And I’ve seen it happen to many people in this game as well. Even with Jon Jones, they’re like ‘yay… boo.’ With DC [Daniel Cormier], they’re like ‘yay… boo.'”

Israel Adesanya, a Kiwi, is currently scheduled to unify his interim middleweight title with the undisputed strap owned by Australia’s Robert Whittaker at UFC 243. The card does not yet have an official location, but the hope is that it will happen somewhere in Oceania.

What do you think of these comments from Adesanya?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/11/2019.