UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has been full of praise for Israel Adesanya this week, ahead of a return to the Octagon for ‘The Last Stylebender’ on Saturday.
Tom Aspinall Praises ‘Technician’ Israel Adesanya
Israel ‘Izzy’ Adesanya is preparing to step into the Octagon for the first time in nearly a year this weekend and ahead of his bout against Dricus Du Plessis, he has received high praise from another UFC champion.
Tom Aspinall was recently crowned UFC interim heavyweight champion, with the Englishman beating Curtis Blaydes in a rematch of the only fight he has lost so far in his career.
Aspinall was interviewed by TNT earlier this week and speaking about the upcoming UFC 305 main event, he gave high praise for Adesanya who is looking to become the first three-time middleweight champion in UFC history.
“Israel Adesanya, such contrasting styles and by the way, if you’re not an Izzy fan, what are you?” Aspinall said.
“I mean, the guy’s an absolute technician. The thing with Izzy is the styles are so different, they’re on different universes, you know what I mean?”
“The way that Izzy fights is he has his hands low a bit, and he will constantly keep you guessing. But because he’s so long—6’4 at middleweight is so tall for a middleweight—he’ll do this kind of stuff a lot.”
Adesanya hasn’t stepped into the ring since losing to Sean Strickland in September last year and his return to the ring has been highly anticipated for some time.
Despite being out of action for nearly a year, Aspinall believes that ‘Izzy’ will put up a tough challenge at UFC 305 this weekend, likening the fight to a bull and matador.
“I would say it’s almost like the bull and the matador, this fight. It’s like we’ve got the bull in DDP [Du Plessis]; he’s coming forward, you know what you’re going to get with him—he’s closing the space, trying to kill you.
“On the other hand, he’s [Adesanya] staying out of the way, doing his feints, and it’s just such a contrast of styles. As a massive fan of MMA myself, I just can’t wait to see it.”
