Daniel Cormier defends Israel Adesanya following UFC 276 criticism: “If Jared Cannonier is going to cruise to a loss, how is it Izzy’s responsibility to do more?”

Daniel Cormier is defending Israel Adesanya after the criticism he received at UFC 276.

It was Israel Adesanya (23-1 MMA) vs Jared Cannonier (15-6 MMA) in the middleweight title bout this past Saturday, July 2nd, which took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Adesanya defeated Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) in the main event of UFC 276 retaining his middleweight title. ‘The Last Stylebender’ has now won 23 of his 24 professional bouts and this was his fifth consecutive title defense.

However, Adesanya’s win was overshadowed by fans feeling the fight between the two middleweights was lackluster, and they even took to booing during the match. As they say in sports a win is a win, and maybe it wasn’t as exciting a performance as it could or should have been, but Adesanya did win and he did retain the belt.

Daniel Cormier, the former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, on his ESPN ‘DC & RC’ show had this to say about the criticism of Adesanya’s performance at the fight:

“So many people have said this, and it gets a bit cliche, but it takes two to tango. If Jared Cannonier is going to cruise to a loss, how is it Izzy’s responsibility to do more? Now, I thought Cannonier early had some moments, but they just weren’t sustained.”

Continuing Cormier said (h/t MMAJunkie):

“He could not get it going to a level or to a degree that could truly challenge Adesanya. Adesanya is one of the most talented counter-strikers in the business, so you’ve got to be very guarded with your engagements because if you don’t, you end up like Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker in the first fight and Kelvin Gastelum to a lesser degree.”

In conclusion, defending Adesanya, Daniel Cormier said:

“I thought he (Adesanya) fought a good fight. I thought he was smart. I thought he dominated the fight. He won the fight four rounds to one on both cards and then the other card was five rounds to zero. What more can you want from a guy in defending his championship but winning all the rounds? The problem is, when you become a guy like Israel – and Anderson Silva went through the same thing, Jon Jones went through the same thing – you become so dominant that those dominating performances become a bit lackluster.”

Were you watching Adesanya vs Cannonier last Saturday at UFC 276? Did you feel that the performance between the two fighters was lackluster or do you agree with Daniel Cormier that Cannonier just didn’t bring it and it wasn’t Adesanya’s responsibility to make the fight exciting?

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