Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya credits himself for UFC 234 being sold out

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Israel Adesanya is a star and has all the making to be a superstar. Or, he may already be a superstar.

Adesanya came out of nowhere and went 4-0 in 2018 to become the top middleweight contender. And, at UFC 234, he is taking on a legend of the sport in former middleweight champion, Anderson Silva. That is a fight fans are looking forward to, as Adesanya resembles Silva.

With that, Adesanya believes he is the reason UFC 234 is sold out, not because of Robert Whittaker who is the middleweight champion and fighting at home.

“I’m just going to do me, and Whittaker, that’s his Christmas gift for the next five years; [it’s] me being on this card with Anderson that made the show sell out in 15 minutes,” Adesanya told ESPN.

“This show wouldn’t have sold out the way it did without me and Anderson, so he’s [Whittaker] welcome. He gets the pay-per-view points, he gets the accolades and what not. And yeah, good for him, he knows what’s up, even he knows it. So he can enjoy it for the next 10 years.”
Ultimately, Adesanya has big plans for himself. It first started with fighting Silva, and once he wins, and if Whittaker wins, he wants an Australia vs New Zealand showdown for the title.

“I’ll just tell you one thing, when I had my meeting with Dana [White] — I was supposed to have one last weekend with the ESPN [Brooklyn] card as well — but I sat with Dana two months ago, hashed it out with him and told him what the go [was], and now everything is falling into place exactly as I planned it.

“Let’s just say I want Robert to win this fight [against Gastelum], I really want Robert to win this fight and I feel like I’m going to win this fight [against Silva]. So I’ll just leave it at that.”

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Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton covers MMA for BJPenn.com, MMANews, and MyMMANews.com while also being the lead MMA odds writer for Sports Betting Dime