Chris Weidman shares advice to Israel Adesanya on facing criticism from the media: “You have to answer all those questions”
Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman shares some friendly advice to Israel Adesanya as he prepares to reclaim the title he lost in November last year.
This Saturday, at UFC 287, in Miami, Florida, Adesanya will look to avenge his first middleweight loss in MMA against a longtime foe, Alex Pereira. Pereira snatched Adesanya’s middleweight crown in the fifth round of their third combat sports encounter at UFC 281 in Maddison Square Garden.
With Pereira now holding three wins over ‘The Last Stylebender’, many would expect the luck to fall in Adesanya’s favour on Saturday night. Still, it doesn’t look convincing looking back at statistics when former champions tried to reclaim the throne immediately. Since the promotion’s existence, challengers who have attempted to get the title straight back have gone 3-12. The three successful in doing so were Randy Couture, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Amanda Nunes. Adesanya will look to become the fourth after his Nigerian counterpart Kamaru Usman fell short in his trilogy bout with Leon Edwards last month at UFC 286.
Chris Weidman on Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 287
On a recent episode of MMA on SiriusXM, Weidman offered a view on why the former champions are not able to regain championship glory in the following bout.
“I think a big reason why champions suffer trying to get their belt back is because when you’re trying to get your belt back… You’re the top of the world. You’re the world champion. You believe yourself as the champ. Everyone calls you the champ and all of the sudden you lose. People say you suck, that you were never that good to begin with. You just got tons of criticism coming from everywhere and all you want to do is get your belt back. Like a sense of entitlement with that belt. That’s yours and you just need to get back in that ring as fast as possible to prove to everybody you’re the champion.
“You don’t want to do media. You don’t want to talk to anybody about this stuff. You don’t want to explain to them why you lost over and over again and why you think you’re gonna do better this time. Especially Adesanya. He’s lost three times to this dude and now he has to verbally tell you why he thinks he should be able to beat this guy on the fourth try. You know how exhausting that is? How much of a pain in the a** that is?”
"When you're trying to get that belt back, I think it's best to make it like it's another fight."
Ahead of #UFC287, @chrisweidman discusses why fight week media may actually be beneficial to Israel Adesanya. 👀
⬇️ Chris talks ALL THINGS Izzy-Pereira 2 ⬇️https://t.co/BHLzoSHA0f pic.twitter.com/j12dWNiwYu
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) April 3, 2023
Weidman shares advice to Adesanya
Weidman suggests Adesanya treats the rematch with Pereira like any other fight, takes the pressure off himself, tries to face the media head-on, and embraces the stoppage loss he was dealt with back in November.
“All they want to do is get back in there and prove everybody wrong, but when you do that, you hold off the media, you hold off talking. You put this pressure on yourself. The pressure builds and builds. In my opinion, learning from experience, when you’re trying to get that belt back, I think it’s best to make it like it’s just another fight and when it comes to media, which is part of our job, you have to take it head on and you have to answer all those questions. Because the more you talk about it, it’s like therapy. The more you talk about it, the more you deal with the real world, you’re getting it off your chest.”
Quotes via Middle Easy
A fourth loss to Pereira would most likely end the rivalry that has taken place across kickboxing and MMA. Adesanya himself believes this is the last chance to attain a much-needed win over Pereira.
Do you agree with Chris Weidman? Let us know in the comments!
Topics:
Chris Weidman Israel Adesanya UFC
