Israel Adesanya is still showing the confidence of a champion – Dustin Poirier | UFC 287 Pre-Show

you know I hate using this word losing because no one who steps in the Octagon whether they get their hand raised or not it loses but you know it's the reality for 99.99 of Fighters who ever compete that one day they're not going to get their hand raised Izzy has seen Alex's hand raised three times in all three of their meetings Dustin how if at all can that impact the self-belief of a guy who has confidence in Spades in Israel adesanya you know that's a that's an answer only he can he can give

I feel but from the outside looking in you know yesterday at the press conference and the way he's walking around and carrying himself he seems confident he's still walking around like a champion chest out you know um it looks like he's ready to go no the initial story was that Panera followed Izzy into MMA from kickboxing so that was kind of the narrative that he that we can buy before he did the real Narrative of this story between these two men is that Izzy is obsessed with proving that he ca

n beat Pereira he's obsessed with that even when the fight was initially over he was walking out with his head up thinking listen I'm better than this guy the time we spent inside of a ring or a cage I've been winning the majority of the time I just can't seem to close the deal Izzy really believes that he's better he just has to go out and prove it you feel like there's a lot if you are Israel when you look back at that last fight from November do you feel like there's a lot to be down about li

ke you just mentioned he he does seem to believe he was winning the majority of that fight he does seem I mean he kind of was I mean he was controlling the majority of the fight but he hasn't really been able to put the respect that he needs him to win that's this fight he has to put the respect on himself for Baran to believe that he could win his fight and I think that's where Izzy's making a mistake Fernanda doesn't respect him even though he's been hurt by him he doesn't respect him because

he will not leave him alone he gets in his face and he will not get out of his face and coming into this fight we look at perjeta he knocked him out twice right once in kickboxing once in mixed martial arts so we look at him as the big Power puncher but Izzy had him out on his feet at the end of the first round in their last fight so Izzy's coming into this knowing he can put this guy away no he he can hurt this guy and that's just more momentum going in and I think he should have used that mome

ntum in the in the fight like I know it was at the end of the round but you got to carry that into the second round and I think it's important to know that Israel said the thing that surprised him about that outing in November was his ability to recover and his fighting spirit because he essentially yes like you guys just mentioned was out in that first round but comes back in the second and is still ready to fight Israel said that he's going to show his fighting spirit this time around you know

if you're Alex though and you are the champion and you're 3-0 against this guy who's one of the best mixed martial artists in the world is there anything extra that you can do to sort of get into his head I mean Dustin you've been in there with some guys who I know have tried with you yeah it's tough like mentally when you're going into these fights with rematches or trilogies especially when you beat the guy twice you have to go out and look better than you did how can I knock him out better o

r quicker you know so it's a little bit of pressure to to perform and make some the spectacular happen when you've already done some crazy things to the to the opponent do you guys believe that Alex is going to be a dominant force in this division or do we see a different version of him because he's facing Izzy you know what I and in terms of the division I'd be hard-pressed to believe that he stays in the division I mean he is a massive human being I saw him yesterday he's a massive human being

I believe that he has this he realizes he has that carrot over over is it he knows it Izzy wants that carrot and I believe that he's just holding it out there for Izzy and I think that if he wins this fight he's going up because I can't imagine him staying at 185 and trying to be a dominant for us I think he wants to be a double Champion I mean that statistic was crazy eight fights and he's the champion right I mean that's it's almost unheard of right and to stay on top of the division you know

this this stylistic fight for both of these guys is great both kickboxers coming from coming to MMA and uh getting in there and kickboxing with each other obviously you saw a takedown in that in that highlight but how does he stack up against the best wrestlers in the division those questions really haven't been answered yet this is a stylistic fight that's going to be good for both guys both guys can shine in this fight I gotta tell you man that take down a hit it was actually a really good ta

kedown for a kickboxer he like he's running a pipe he changed level I mean it was a really good take that I was very surprised technically on how well he executed that takedown we're talking a lot about potentially seeing offensive wrestler Israel adesanya but Alex trains with Glover to Shara one of the greatest Grapplers um in his division's history so it'll be really interesting to see how they came out but you know Dustin Israel came onto the scene and he really got noticed because the way he

moved caught a lot of attention he is Elusive and obviously that's a strange that has served him right he's a style Bender he goes in there and Ben Styles and makes it hard for you to hit and he's not there when you think he's going to be there and he is there when you think he's not he's really good he has great vision and timing but here like on this on this illustration moving to his right staying on the outside of pajeda's lead leg is so important because that right hand is powerful obvious

ly his Hook is he's knocked multiple people out with that hook and uh standing Square in front of him being against the fence is dangerous for Izzy he needs to move laterally stay off the fence not get smothered there so he can do exactly what he does and style Bend and make this guy guess he needs to keep moving to his right especially when he's fighting from the Southpaw stance keep that lead foot on the outside and he saw elusive that's what I love about his elusiveness it's like from a Targe

t when you're trying to hit a Target if it's not in front of you you can't hit it so it really doesn't matter how much power we have we put so much into the power of pahanna but if Izzy's not there for him to hit him then there's no reason to even have all that power yeah his style his style Bender nickname certainly serves him well Dustin great job with their first illustration I'm trying my best out here oh my gosh give it up for him all right well as I had mentioned just briefly before Glover

to Shara has been a long time training partner of Alex pajeda but then Chuck Liddell came into camp for this one Dean we spoke to him a little bit about it yesterday in our fighter meetings and just you know the benefits of training with Legends obviously Chuck hasn't competed for a long time but he's Chuck Liddell I mean think about it like there was a time and like if you're a new UFC fan you don't know but that was a time where Chuck Liddell was unbeatable it didn't look like he was ever goi

ng to lose and to have a guy like that in your corner and in your camp and giving you advice and helping you out is tremendous and is a tremendous asset to bring Chuck Liddell in just to have that type of that aura and that energy that he brings that fighting spirit and if you know anything about Alex bahana he's already got that fighting Spirit no doubt about it and then to have uh Glover you know working with Glover working with Chuck he has two kingpins of the light heavyweight division Champ

ions who fought the who's who you know the highest competition so these guys know what a fight is going through when he's prepping for these big fights that's super important to have people around you like that thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus