‘I Don’t Think He Should be Broke’- Israel Adesanya Surprised at Jared Cannonier’s Pay Comments

Published 08/23/2021, 11:27 AM EDT

Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya reviewed the UFC Vegas 34 main event between Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. Both of them had a classic faceoff where neither man wanted to give an inch to his opponent. In the end, it was ‘The Killa Gorilla’ who had the last laugh as he picked up a unanimous decision win.

‘The Last Stylebender’ had a great time watching the match. In the latest episode on his YouTube channel, ‘FREESTYLEBENDER’, we could see him reacting to every impressive move carried out by both those fighters. He then gave his insights on what he felt about them, especially Cannonier.

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“Cannonier did well, just as he should have,” Adesanya said. “Gastelum did have some nice moments early on, but then Cannonier stuck to his game plan. He had a nice shield, I really appreciate it and I’m gonna write that on my notes.”

After the match, Cannonier revealed his desire to fight for the title. He rued the fact that Adesanya and Whittaker (supposed to fight next to the title) will fight around 6-7 months from now. Then it will be 3-4 months more before he gets an opportunity. ‘The Killa Gorilla’ also called himself ‘broke’ in the post-fight interview.

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Adesanya, who saw all this, was all praise for the former heavyweight turned middleweight. According to him, Cannonier shouldn’t be broke after this fight. “He says he’s broke. I don’t think he should be broke if he’s fighting on this level,” Adesanya added. “I hope he makes a lot of money this fight (and) I hope he gets looked after for his next fight.”

The UFC fighters talking about pay is not a new thing. In recent times, many have raised this issue and some of them have even denied taking a fight for less money. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is a perfect example of this. He hasn’t fought in a while and has mostly been on loggerheads with UFC on pay issues.

Some fighters have also shown interest in participating in boxing matches as the rise of the Paul brothers has affected them considerably. An elite fighter like Francis Ngannou showed his astonishment when Logan Paul supposedly made $20 million in an exhibition match against Mayweather.

It will be interesting to how this pay issue takes shape going forward.

Israel Adesanya wants to make the free time count

Sometime later this year, Adesanya and Whittaker would have fought for the title in a rematch from 2019. But COVID restrictions in the regions where both live has certainly shifted their mouthwatering clash to next year. Although Adesanya embraces this break, he won’t just sit down and relax during this time.

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“I’m kind of glad I have this time off because I really get to learn a lot more new skills, new skills that I can use when I come back. Because when you’re in fight camp, you’re trying to just get in fighting shape. So now I really get to just up-skill the martial arts,” Adesanya told in ‘The MMA Hour’ show. (via MMA Fighting)

It will be interesting to see if ‘The Last Stylebender’ faces Cannonier if he gets past ‘The Reaper‘. For now, he could just sharpen up his skills and wait for judgment day to arrive.

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What did you make of Adesanya’s comments on Cannonier being ‘broke’? Let us know.

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Written by:

Akshyay Mahapatra is a UFC author for EssentiallySports. He wished to combine his passion for the UFC (that he has been following since 2008) as well as his love for writing. This motivated him to enter the world of combat sports journalism.

‘I Don’t Think He Should be Broke’- Israel Adesanya Surprised at Jared Cannonier’s Pay Comments

Israel Adesanya wants to make the free time count

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