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Israel Adesanya just shared his favorite actor on Twitter, and it's none other than Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise.
It's impossible to prove that Adesanya just watched Top Gun 2, but Top Gun 2 is awesome and the only Tom Cruise movie currently in theaters, so there's certainly a chance that's what prompted the UFC middleweight champion to tweet:
"Tom Cruise officially my fave actor."
Of course, Adesanya could be reviewing some of Cruise's fine repertoire of films on Netflix. That includes such classics as Edge of Tomorrow, Interview with the Vampire, and Mission: Impossible 1 through 6. If 'The Last Stylebender' is pushing through a Mission: Impossible marathon on his off time from preparing for UFC 276, he's in luck. Mission: Impossible 7 is right around the corner, slated for release in July 2023.
Perhaps the reason Israel Adesanya likes Cruise is because both men take their legacy so seriously. In a recent promo video for Adesanya's new ENGAGE clothing brand, he ruminated on the nature of legacy.
"Legacy. I can't tell you the definition, but I know what it feels like. Legacy. The feeling of being great. Being great at what I do. Being great at being free. That's my legacy. I'm in a very unique position so it's not about me any more, I've acheived my dreams in that department tenfold. What drives me now and keeps me hungry is the feeling of acheiving something. Legacy. A feeling of mastering my craft and then expressing it on the world stage flawlessly. That's legacy."
Israel Adesanya is ready to fight Alex Pereira, the man who beat him twice in kickboxing
While Israel Adesanya has a big challenge ahead of him in Jared Cannonier at UFC 276, some are looking past that fight to a potential Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira bout.
Pereira is a two division Glory kickboxing champion who happens to hold two wins over Adesanya in that sport - one of them a knockout. He faces Sean Strickland on the undercard of UFC 276, and if he wins it's expected that he'll earn a title shot. Israel Adesanya discussed the potential match-up at a UFC 276 media day, saying:
“This isn’t kickboxing, this is mixed martial arts. These ain’t big pillow gloves, these are four ounce deadly weapons that I can’t wait to drive through his face after I go through Jared Cannonier.”
Adesanya added that he's fine with facing Pereira next despite the kickboxer only having two fights in the UFC (three after the Strickland bout).
“I don’t like this narrative of ‘It’s too quick, it’s too quick for Pereira.’ But look, Jiri [Prochazka] just fought for and won the belt in his third fight in the UFC. Anderson [Silva] did it in his second fight. So that’s fine, [Pereira] is new to MMA."
'The Last Stylebender' insists he's not worried about fighting Pereira because he was winning their fight before being knocked out. He said:
"I’ve been in this game a long time and this TikTok generation has a 15-second memory. All they see is a knockout, but they don’t watch the first fight, or the second fight before the finish.”
For Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira to come together, both fighters will have to get past their opponents at UFC 276 on July 2.
