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Israel Adesanya generated a lot of attention at UFC 276 for copying the Undertaker's walkout. Not only did he use the WWE star's music, he carried an urn and wore an Undertaker style hat. The lights were lit the same as an Undertaker walk-out, and Adesanya walked out slowly and with menace, just like the Undertaker.
According to Chael Sonnen's latest YouTube video, that decision may have hurt Adesanya's performance in the cage. Relaying the thoughts of an unnamed friend, Sonnen suggested the drawn out entrance could have left 'The Last Stylebender' cold and off once the fight began. He said:
"My friend's take was 'Wait a minute Chael, here's what you're missing: It was slow.' Go on ... yes, it's slow. 'No no no no, the whole walkout and approach was slow.' On purpose. Izzy knew and had to program himself that it's going to be slow. It's going to be methodical. That carried over to the fight. If you juxtapose that to the walkout in Australia versus Whittaker the first time ... remember when he danced into the ring? I think there was even a flip component in there. He was hopping around, it couldn't have been any faster. Couldn't have been higher energy. And that fight was like ba-ba-ba-ba, that fight kicks off, the performance matched the walk-in."
Watch Chael Sonnen discuss Israel Adesanya's Undertaker walk-out below:
Adesanya has been widely criticized for his cautious and tactical performance in Las Vegas, especially after he made a lot of noise leading up to the event suggesting he was going to take the fight to Cannonier. And while Israel Adesanya won the fight comfortably with 49–46, 49–46, and 50–45 scores, there was little excitement generated. Few people had much to say about the performance, past the walk-out.
Contrast that to Adesanya's October 2019 win over Robert Whittaker in Australia, where he did a back flip en route to the cage. He knocked Whittaker out in violent fashion and capped the win off by pretending to fire a machine gun around the Octagon. There was a lot more energy present for that win.
Israel Adesanya admits he had an "off night" against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276
Chael Sonnen isn't the only one to find Israel Adesanya's performance to be relatively slow and methodical. Adesanya himself admitted he just couldn't switch gears as the fight went on. During the UFC 276 post-fight press conference he said:
“I had an off night, tonight. So Eugene [Bareman] told me, ‘The people that really know you: your teammates, your family. They know you had an off night.' And I still f—ked him up ... It was in the fight when maybe I couldn’t find my power shots, my kicks. The initiators, the jabs, the leg kicks were working, but I was trying to find the power shots. But, he was adjusting well ... He’s a formidable fighter, I called this ages ago. And he showed it tonight."
Watch Israel Adesanya's full post-fight press conference interview below:
It's also worth noting that fighters don't fight Israel Adesanya the same any more. 'The Last Stylebender' rose to champion by buzzsawing through aggressive fighters with accurate lighting fast counterstrikes. Now that this gameplan is well recognized, he's faced a lot of opponents that try to edge him out on the scorecards, or recreate Jan Blachowicz's wrestling-heavy approach.
