Israel Adesanya reacts to Conor McGregor’s win at UFC 246: ‘That was gangster’

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was very impressed with Conor McGregor’s knockout win over Donal Cerrone at UFC 246.

“The Last Stylebender” watched UFC 246 from his home in Auckland, New Zealand and had nothing but good things to say about the way McGregor demolished Cerrone. In particular, Adesanya says he was impressed with McGregor’s shoulder strikes near the beginning of the fight that badly hurt Cerrone, leading to a quick finish. Adesanya is one of the most creative strikers in the sport, so that’s quite a compliment for McGregor to hear.

Here’s what Adesanya told ESPN.

“It was great, I loved it. I appreciated the way he played the game. I loved the shoulder strikes, that was gangster. I liked the head kick, that was sick, it was real slick. I’m a big fan,” Adesanya said.

Both Adesanya and McGregor are clients of Paradigm Sports Management, and Adesanya realizes that a McGregor win will, in turn, help him out as well. Both men are two of the UFC’s biggest superstars and whenever both men win it will help each other out.

“Obviously his management team is my management team, so it’s good. It’s a good win for us because when he wins, I win. When I win, he wins. It’s good for us because we get to claim a lot of the chips on the table,” Adesanya said.

Adesanya was recently booked to fight Yoel Romero in the main event of UFC 248 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the same venue where McGregor just knocked Cerrone out. It will mark Adesanya’s first title defense since unifying the belts against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 this past October. Knowing how impressive McGregor just was at UFC 246, maybe Adesanya will show us something unique and crazy at UFC 248 just to one-up him.

Do you agree with Israel Adesanya and his assessment of Conor McGregor’s performance at UFC 246?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/20/2020.