MMA Fighting - Israel Adesanya Talks Escalating Feud with Jon Jones, GSP's Comments About Him and His Future at Light Heavyweight

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya discusses his recent victory over Paulo Costa, the ongoing war of words with Jon Jones and when he believes that fight will happen and his eventual plans to move to light heavyweight to become 'champ-champ' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Fresh off, a dominant victory over Apollo Costa in the UFC 253 main event. I am happy to welcome in today. The reigning, defending, UFC middleweight champion of the world, Israel Adesanya. Hey, Damon, how are you?

I am good. I'm good. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with you, man. I really appreciate it. No worries. Light work, light work. How is everything in quarantine? Easy.

I just finished training with my boys. And yeah, it's living the life, man, living the life. Absolutely, man. Well, I appreciate you doing this again. Congratulations, of course, on an amazing victory. I know it's been over a week now, but, you know, you've had a chance to go back and rewatch it. I know fighters are always their own worst critics,

so I'll ask you, how did you grade your performance? Ooh, that's a good question. I will give myself, honestly, and A-plus. I'll give myself an A-plus. I don't want to say plus-plus, but I'll give myself an A-plus. just because I don't want to be too hard on myself because I am my own worst critic I've watched it and I've seen

I've seen if I was fighting me what I would have done different if I was Costa because people kept on saying oh he should have stuck to his game plan Costa just didn't do anything and they're all trying to take the win away from me by saying it was him but I know no matter what

it wasn't him it was me I've frozen I told you it's different when you're in front of me it's different you think you're just going to walk me down fuck no so yeah I'll give myself an A plus Absolutely. It was a great game plan to dismantle him. Obviously, you guys do a lot of hard work to get ready for your Faiszzi. Did it play out pretty much the way you and Eugene and the rest of your coaches had planned it? To be honest, it was easier. Like, I knew I would make it look easy, but I thought I'd take even a couple of shots to their face. I thought maybe I might get hit a little bit, but there was nothing, none of that. That was just so easy. Effortless almost. Yeah. One of my favorite things you talked about, pose.

fight and I wrote about it. I was so excited. It was such a really cool thing to hear was your dad giving you the advice about your pink hair and I would not have even thought of that, to be honest with you. That was brilliant. I got to say, that was such a brilliant piece of advice. I loved that. I absolutely loved

that. Yeah, man, my dad's a brilliant man and his seat is not too bad himself. So, of course, the fight played out, you know, pretty dominantly. I don't know that there's a lot to break down considering how dominant your performance. was. But considering all the bad blood or all the things that, you know, Costa had said,

could you have imagined that playing out any better? No. Right down to the bump, the double tap, the tea bag at the end, it was perfect. Like, I fought my fight perfectly. Like, it couldn't, I'm trying, it could have gone even better if I flatlined them maybe. But now, I kind of like, I, no, I kind of like, I, no, Fuck that. It was perfect. I'm glad he was conscious, you know, for, you know, unconscious for a little bit. But I wanted him to feel, if it was flatline, I think he wouldn't have really felt he would have just woke up and be shocked.

But I'm glad he was conscious to feel me dominating him. Yeah, absolutely. To that point, Izzy, let me ask you about your post-fight celebration. You know, there's like this mixed reaction. Some people said, hey, it's fair game. When you talk trash and you say bad things, the guy celebrates. on you, that's how the sport works. Other people say, oh, it's martial arts,

you got to respect to the guy, and afterwards you put all the bad blood behind you. Now, I tend to fall into the earlier category where I say, listen, Paula Kosten said a lot of bad things leading into this fight, and when you get knocked out or you get finished, that's the other side of it, when you have to reap what you sow.

100%. Is that kind of how you feel about everyone's reaction to the post-fight celebration? I couldn't give a fuck what they think, to be honest. For me, I just felt like it was, I didn't even think about it. I didn't plan it. It was just justified. Like, you know, when you're on Call of Duty, you smokes on with a headshot,

and then you go over them and then press circle down, down and up, down and up, kind of teabag them. That's kind of what I did, you know. And, yeah, regardless, I think what they, what it is is homophobia. People are just mad to go, oh, why? Why don't you do a nudge, no man, you're in a chair, because they feel inadequate. They're questioning the own sexuality.

But, like, for me, I was just like, dude said so much shit to me leading up to the fight. He insulted me in so many different ways. That was just like, what? That was pretty much a second after the fight was over, and you expect me to be gracious. Are you fucking kidding me? I was gracious when I walked up to him,

and I said, you're going to shake my hand? He shook my hand. And I said, good fight. Hey, thank you. Thank you for the game. And I tapped him on the shoulder. I was gracious when I secretly DMed him. And, you know, check, you know, how's your leg, you know?

And I just wanted to check on them. Because I know, like, the other side of the coin, I'm down Salomon's feel. And I told him on the DM, I was like, you know, if you were disrespectful, so I have to be disrespectful back. If you were respectful, did not be respectful. But I have to make an example out of you. I let him know on the DM. And then he put out a video saying, well, I want to kill you.

I want to kill you. And then I fucking released the DM saying, look, this is what happened. when I de-empt him. So, yeah, I'm not an asshole, but if you're an asshole to me, ooh, boy, I can give it right back. After the fight, I'm not going to ask you for the reaction again to when he released that video, all the kind of crazes the outrage. But I'll ask you another question,

considering what Paulo has done and what you had seen out of him, do you feel like you'll ever cross paths with him again, or do you feel like this one win is probably the only time you're going to see him in your career? I don't think I ever see him again, to be honest. I think this is going to be like Connor McGregor and Jose Aldo. Like, he has to let it go. He has to let it go.

Example, I've lost before. I've been knocked out before by one of this countrymen. I never, like, and you know what the funny thing is? The same guy that knocked me out. He's the same guy still calling me out. So who's really winning? You know what I mean? And it's not, and you know why?

Because I don't chase that. I don't need it back. I'm like, it happened. It taught me a valuable lesson and staying true to myself and staying true to my craft and not listening to what anyone else said. It taught me a really valuable lesson at that. So I'm grateful it happened, but you don't see me calling out the same guy. Like, no, I got to get it back.

I don't need it. Like, it happened. It's in the past. Even when I knock him out again, if he comes to the UFC, it's never going to erase what happened. It's already happened. So you have to just accept it and move on, which is the advice I give Paul. You're never going to get this one back.

you know if by some crazy miracle or work ethic he does come up in the rankings again he he can't unfuck himself you know what I mean I've done it to him and I've embarrassed him so he just has to accept it and realize my mouth wrote checks my ass going to cash and Israel likes to collect so yeah it happened and let it go so that's that's my advice for it because that's what I did I never really looked to go chase any losses I've had back I've gotten a few back in the past, but yeah, that's because they just came up. And I was like, right, this is my chance of redemption. But I'm fine with where I'm at.

So he has to be all right. Where is that? And move on. Yeah. You've been a guy. I mean, you've seen all sides of it since you've become champion. You know, you've had the haters who come out in force and say, you're this or you're that. But you've also had praise.

I saw you saw it the other day. George St. Pierre called you the perfect fighter. Now, I don't know what your opinion on in George is, but George is one of those guys who's so well revered, so well respected, one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest of all time in terms of what he's done. What does it mean to you when a fighter of that caliber calls you a perfect fighter?

Yeah, man, George St. Pierre, when he was active, you know, when I was just a fan, to be honest, I respected him so much as a person. And I'll say this, and please don't clickbait headline me, but he wasn't my favorite artist Anderson Silver was because this is subjective. Art is subjective. And some people love the way George fought

and, you know, pal to them. I liked it, but I wouldn't say I loved it. But as a person, the way he carried himself as a champion, I could never say anything bad about the guy. You know, he wasn't my favorite artist, but the way he carried himself out of the ring, the way he carried himself as a champion, fucking my hat off to him 10 times over.

And to hear him say, I'm a role model. I've always hated that term because I'm like, bro, all you're a role model, my kid looks up for you. I'm like, yeah, raise your own kids, you know? Like, and that's not me trying to take away from that. I understand because of the position I'm in, but you can't put that on me. But for him to say something like that about me,

and for him to understand, you know, what I'm doing, you know, like he said, Israel knows what he's doing with this game. I love me or hate me, but you wouldn't ignore me. And I've said that, bro. I've said that. Like, you don't have. to buy my pay-per-views, you know. Well, you will.

You're gonna pay. You're gonna fucking pay. I'm not talking money. You're gonna pay attention. You can't ignore me. Just, I'm not even trying. I'm just ignorable. I'm just unignorable, sorry.

So yeah, George, I love, you know, the way he dominated. One of my favorite wins of his was the Carlos Condit win because of the way he came back. And I was going for Carlos in that fight. But the way he came back, that was like, bro, you can't fault this guy. He is one of the best all time. So for me to get a compliment like that from one of the goats, goats recognized goats. Yeah, absolutely. To that point, let's talk about the flip side of that.

A guy that you've had, man, I say war words, that almost doesn't even cover it with what's been going on with John Jones over the past couple weeks. I know you've told me in the past, you have fun with it. You don't, you're not trying to take it personal. You have fun with it and you know that you're kind of getting his head and things like that. But what had these past couple of years, these past week and a half of John, Because we know that's a fight you want. We know that's a fight that's eventually going to happen, but it just feels like every time you fight,

this kind of starts up again. Say that again. Every time I fight, he does what? It feels like it starts up again. He starts it up again. You know why? Because he's scared. This is a thing, bro.

He keeps saying, oh, is he really ready to move up and wait? Is he really ready to move up and wait? It's been damn years since 2013. He's been teasing, I'm going to move up to heavy weight. wait. It's 2020. Is he ever going to be ready to move up and wait? But yet they're trying to make me move up on weight early so that way they can get me. Because they know John's been in my position before. He understands the power of momentum. He understands the power that a win like this does for me. And they wish they got me like three fights ago. They wish they got me just after

I got the belt. That's why when I got the belt, he's the one that brought my name up first, that he wanted to fight me. You know why? Because he knew I was a threat. He knew I'm a big money fight. He knew this is the guy. So again, I only ever talk about it when I'm asked about him. I never bring him up in interviews. It's only when I'm like, you just ask me about him. So I'm talking about him now. But every time I fight, no one ever asks him anything,

boy, he always brings me up. You know why? Because he's scared. And he knows that I know. He's scared. And that's the thing. He understands. I've seen him live, bro.

He, bro, listen to this. The guy cleaned out his division. Instead of moving up and wait, what does he do? He starts to fight middle weights who moved up for, you know, like, Anthony Smith, Tiago Santos, you name them. He just decides to, oh, sandbag it. Why doesn't he move up on weight?

And he's teasing it again. I'm going to move up on wait. He ain't going to do shit. Trust me, he ain't going to do shit. He's talking about it. I think, you know what? I don't even care what he does. Like, I'm still coming for him.

Like, regardless when he wins, when he loses, whatever, I'm coming for him. That's a fight I want, because I just want to prove a point. That's the thing. I just want to prove a point. You said some there that kind of remind me, talked to Curtis Blades a couple days ago, and I asked him about John, because again, the talk was John going to heavyweight, and he kind of stopped me and said,

John's not going to heavyweight. He told me he believes it's all publicity stunt. He doesn't believe it as far as John is coming to heavyweight. Do you agree with that? Do you believe this is all talk? And ultimately, it's going to be John maybe fighting Yon or John trying to fight you. It's not John actually going up to fight Francis or Stipe or those guys. You don't want that smoke. I'm not saying he can't do well. I think he'll do very well at heavyweight, possibly, but he doesn't want that smoke because he's scared. He's a guy that said it since 2013. So why should he do it now? The only reason I believe him now, maybe is because he relinquish the belt. But who knows? Who knows even why? There's always something in the

background. Maybe he did something stupid that he had to, he was forced to lay go of the belt and just keep it on the wraps that they hit in New Mexico. Who knows? Another hit a run, another binge, another bender. Who knows, man? But for me, I have done it in kickboxing. I moved up heavyweight, super heavyweight to be in fact. Actually, not it was heavyweight, not super heavyweight. My bad. I did it in boxing. I beat Brian Minto, who was a former heavyweight world champion in boxing. I'm going to do it in MMA. I'm not a guy who teases it and doesn't do it.

I've said it already, International Fight Week 2021, and he's still trying to make it happen ASAP. His teammate just said, she said, in the interview I saw on Instagram, like a little snippet. She said something about writing her own story and never letting anyone write her story for her. Ditto. I've written my own story this far. I'm never going to anyone force my hand, you know? And he's the one saying, oh, is he ready? Is he maybe she asks Eugene? Motherfucker asks yourself, are you really ready to move up to heavyweight?

Because you've been teasing that since 2013 and you ain't done shit. Let me ask you this, Izzy, you're a guy, and I think this gets misconstrued because you're the superstar, you're the champion. When you say things, it kind of gets amplified more because of who you are. Kind of like with Connor. Whenever Connor says something, everything gets amplified because it's a champion. with Connor. Paula Costa comes after you,

you react. You weren't necessarily, you know, trying to trash the guy until he said something about you. Now, I'm bringing this up because I want to make it clear.

John brought this up first. John, when he started talking about you, said something about your dad. He said something about your dad and the advice he gave you, and you reacted and said something back. Now, again, I want to make that clear. He started,

you reacted. Yeah. But in that, so I'm not going to act. I respond. That's what I'm looking therapy. Never react. I respond. Because reaction,

if you're reacting, there's a time for reaction. That's when I'm fighting. I can trust my instincts. You know, but out of the cage, I like to respond these days and react. And yet,

he talked about my father and then I brought up his mother who rest in peace has passed away, but people are faulting me. Like, you don't talk about a man's dead mother. I'm like, you don't talk about a man's father. I don't give a fuck if your mom is dead or alive. Don't bring my father or my family into this.

Because this is work. You know what I mean? So if you bring up anything, anything about my family, that's open season. I'm coming for your whole fucking family, your whole clan. So yeah, he brought up my father. And I just said, I didn't say anything bad about his mother. I'm sure she was a lovely lady.

He actually looks like he has a good family, you know, outside of the cage. So I would never say anything to disrespect about his mother. All I said was your mom would be disappointed as who you've become because he brought my father. So I don't give a fuck if your mom is dead. Don't talk about my dad, even though he's alive. Don't talk about my family. And it's fair game.

I won't talk about your mom. people talk about my dad. People are like, oh, why don't you talk about this dad instead? He was alive. I don't give a fuck. That's not up to you to decide. That's not up to you to decide what I can go for when you come at something that wasn't even on the table at all.

So next time, you talk about my family and, bro, nothing is off limits. You want to get dirty? Trust me, I'm from the fucking gutter. I can get dirty and grimy. Yeah. Well, then that's kind of my point. Like, obviously, you respond to that. But to me, that's over the line.

When he brought your father into it, I thought that's over the line. Like, you don't go there. You can talk trash all day long. You can say whatever you want about your performance or whatever. My coach, you can break him out, my coach. I don't mind because we're in this business. You know what I mean? But same thing.

Like, just because, you know, you see my family in the cage celebrating with me or you see me bring up my dad and hail him. Doesn't mean he's on the table. That's family. If you want to really get dirty, trust me. I've got receipts. I can get down on dirty. I go fucking sports soldiers in New Mexico.

They tell me what's really happening. He has no fucking idea. This is war. I'm a general in this bitch. I love it. So you mentioned International Fight Week, 2021, you and John Jones. Do you think it'll happen? 100%.

Trust me. I've seen him live. I saw him fight Tiago Santos live. Once I saw that, I was like, is this the guy that everyone's scared of? I think round four and five, I kind of just, I watched it, but it was just like, this is the guy? Dude, he fucking doesn't even finish people anymore. He barely finishes.

It could barely finish a fucking sandwich. could barely finish a whole camp without some fucking drama or you solder or something outside of the cage you know or so officer is it not too much

you can wind the window down like the guy's a piece of shit and he knows it that's the thing I'm not perfect bro I'm a piece of shit in my own right but the difference between me and him

is I learn from my mistakes and I make sure they never happen again that's the big difference between me and him but he's a piece of shit through and through he never learns from the mistakes and repeats them over and over again, and that says a lot about him as a person.

Yeah. Now, after your fight is that you mentioned, you know, what comes next for you, and you've mentioned numerous times that we've talked about in the past, Jared Canaaner is a guy you've got a lot of respect for and a guy you're looking forward to. Now I'm not going to ask you to repeat what you said

about the fight with Robert Whitaker, but I'll ask you kind of flip side. If that fight plays out the way you expect it to and Jared Cannoneer wins, what kind of problems does a guy like Jared Canaaner present as an opponent? Yeah, even John tried to He tried to dismiss Jared as a formidable opponent

But that's a great mistake, bro. You can never do that with Jared Because Jared is one of the guys You sleep on him and you get slept You get slept And I feel like Jared is just He's had a resurgence at middleweight You know, he was a heavyweight

Came down to a light heavyweight And then now he's a middleweight And I feel like if you sleep on Jared You'll get slept He's a dark horse of the division The guy no one's talking about So I kind of have to set that off because I won a new opponent.

I told you, I want to clean out this division, and then I move up like some people haven't. They clean out the division twice over and decide, let me just hang around and fight some middleweight tool coming up. They try and sell you those wolf tickets like this. This is a tough fight, right, right, right, right. We all knew what those fights were like. We all knew those fights were going to be easy.

The close one was Tiago Santos, and I watched that live, and I let me know, this guy is not it. He's weathered, he's weathered, he's washed, he's done. It's over for him. Like, trust me. And he knows where I'm at right now. He knows the power of momentum. This is a force you can't stop.

This is a force you can't, you can't, like an avalanche. How the fuck are you going to stop an avalanche when it gets going? It's too late for him. When I fight him, I'll finish him. I'll end him. And he thinks wrestling is going to save him. Cool. Believe that.

With that being said, you've talked about clearing out the division. And again, I don't want to discount Robert Whitaker. I don't want to say he doesn't have a chance in that fight because obviously he's a former champion. But if you go through Jared Canineer, I mean, is it safe to say at that point? You've kind of already cleared out the division. I know Darren Till's a guy who talked about fighting,

but Darren's coming off a loss. He's obviously not going to be fighting for the title next. I mean, is Canaaner? There's a guy that's true. Yeah, I mean, is that... Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's on the role right now. He just beat Kelvin Gasselham in decisive fashion.

Just some of these guys did great fight but they just don't know how to play the game. When I say play the game, I mean, I don't mean like market yourself with a gimmick or whatever. I mean like they just don't know how to push themselves out there and when the stock is up, you know what I mean? So no one talks about them after the, you know, great wins. But yeah, we've got him.

We've got Calvin seeing what he does, but I've already beat him anyway. Let me see. I think that would be it. Jared, if Robert does well, maybe you see a rematch, I don't know. But all I know is 2021. Fucking light heavyweight is mine. When you go to light heavyweight,

and I'll take Jones out of the conversation right now, we just got a new champion crowning Jan Blahovich. Obviously, that's a fun moment. But you mentioned before going up to 205, you talk a lot about how much you enjoyed watching Anderson Silva. When Anderson Silva was the best middleweight in the world, he would have been had some fun fights at 205. I was at his fight with Forrest Griffin, man.

That was like watching The Matrix, the way he was out there doing this. She 101. Amazing fight. James Irvin's same kind of thing. But if you moved to 205, is it title?

Are you pursuing a second world title? Are you pursuing fun fights? Like right now, John wouldn't be a title fight necessarily, but it would be a massive fight. What would 205 be for you? 205? I'll take the belt. I'll take the belt just to, you know,

double champ it like some of the other fighters have. McGregor, D.C., you know, I like the look of two gold belts on my shoulder. I already did it with my interim belt and my unified undisputed belt when I was a double interim champ. But I like just to flex with that 205 belt as well. And I don't even have to do much to do it. I just stay the same frame that I am.

I don't have to pack on muscle like these guys think like John is doing. They make it great mistakes, bro. But that'll keep, it'll come back and bite them in their ass when it's time. Yeah. Do you feel like, though, because you want to be, you know, champ, chant, double champ, that you'd still want to fight middleweight too? Like, would it be a back and forth kind of thing? Or if you go to 205, would you just want to be at 205? Nah, man, middleweight's mine. I'm definitely the middle. Middleweight's my perfect weight class. So when I do 205, I'll just hold up that division once in a while. That's all. And I'll defend my belt as I see fit. But that's all down the line. Like, I deal with things as they come. I plan for the future. But at the same time, there's so many variables. in this game. You deal with things that they come. Yeah, absolutely. Before I let you go, let me ask you, let me compliment you and say,

congratulations on the Puma deal. That is such a big deal, man. That is such a huge apparel shoes. I wrote about it a couple days ago, man, how big of a deal that is. And you're the first to ever do it, man. Like, I know, you know, again, you earned it. You've obviously earned it, but, man, it's got to feel cool to see something like that come together. That's one of those things that you only dream of,

but you knew it was going to happen, but you never really, I don't know, what's the way, you never really, it's still surreal when it happens. Like, you know it's going to happen,

but you never really, I would say not believe it because I always knew shit like it was going to happen, but I just, when it happens, it's like, damn, Pam,

Fum fucks with me. And yeah, I'm telling you, man, people are sleeping on Puma, man, people have been sleeping on Puma because already I've been shopping on the website

and my God, the range, a range of kicks, the range of tracksuits and, and yeah, they have what the kicks. I'm telling people sleeping on the kicks, bro. Like, it just baffles me, but I'm about to put my own again, wait people up.

Yeah. When is the first style bender shoe coming? When is that going to come? Maybe next year. Next year, I'm thinking next year before Christmas, that's the plan. I love it. I love it. Last thing I'll ask you, I'll get you out here on this.

You've been stuck in quarantine after you got home. I remember talking to your teammate Dan Hooker when he went through it as well. So quarantine when it's finally up, what's the first thing you're going to do when quarantine is finally over. Go see my dogs. That's the first thing I'm going to do. Go get my dogs from the trap house and we're going to go for a nice long walk and play. I love it. I love it. Izzy, thank you so much for taking the time. Again, congratulations on the win. I really appreciate taking the time. And again, hopefully we will chat again soon. I enjoy getting out of quarantine. And thank you for doing this. I really do appreciate it.

My man. Thank you, sir. All right. Talk to you soon. See you. Bye-bye.