Israel Adesanya will soon see himself pitted against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305, and in the meantime, the former UFC middleweight champion has found an admirer in none other than interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
“Stylebender,” who lost his 185-pound gold against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 back in September last year, has earned a shot at the belt against du Plessis, the current middleweight titleholder who dethroned Strickland at UFC 297 back in January. The title fight will headline UFC 305, heading to the RAC Arena in Perth this August 18th.
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The two contenders have had their share of feuds over the past year, and with it, the much anticipated upcoming middleweight championship bout promises fireworks.
Tom Aspinall says watching Israel Adesanya has been a learning experience
As Adesanya prepares for the conquest to regain his long-lost title, Tom Aspinall has come forward to reveal why he is a fan.
“Israel Adesanya, such contrasting styles and by the way, if you’re not an Izzy fan, what are you?” Aspinall told TNT Sports in a recent interview. “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? They’re never mind a different spectrum.
“The way that Izzy fights is he has his hands low a bit, and he will constantly keep you guessing,” Aspinall went on. “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. He’s so good with his kicks; he fakes with the legs as well, so he’ll be doing a lot of this, then he’ll be coming up.”
The Salford native, who clinched the interim heavyweight belt against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November last year, claimed that Adesanya’s fights have worked for him as tutorials.
“We’ve seen him with his chopping leg kicks, we’ve seen him with the high kicks. He’s just so long, and he reads the fight so well. He’s had so many fights now as well. I’ve learned a lot just from watching him, do you know what I mean?” added Aspinall. [H/T BJPenn.com]
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