He looks like it, and when the 29-year-old Adesanya is having fun, that means his opponents are experiencing the opposite feeling, and that’s just the way the New Zealander likes it. He isn’t here for his opponents. He’s here to win and to do it in as interesting a fashion as he can.
So far, so good through 15 fights without a loss, and after just one year in the Octagon, Adesanya has gone from debutant to contender, winning four UFC bouts. But it’s the way that the No. 6-ranked fighter has won that has him in a co-main event slot on this weekend’s pay-per-view card. Yet as Adesanya points out, it’s not flash for flash’s sake.
“There’s a method to my madness,” he said. “People think a lot of us who live in the Matrix in that way or who play with fire like that, they think it’s just for show to look cool. It’s not like that. The smart ones do it to set things up differently. We just happen to look cool. That’s the bonus.”
Adesanya is cool. There’s no denying that. He’s got style, plenty of swagger, and a good dose of savvy, allowing him to navigate the often rocky waters of pro sports with seemingly little effort. And that’s outside the Octagon. In it, it’s the same thing, making him the most intriguing fighter to hit the UFC in recent years.
