The UFC middleweight division has a new champion as Israel Adesanya regains his belt from Alex Pereira! At UFC 287, Adesanya had the performance of a lifetime as he gave Alex a taste of his own medicine and flatlined the Brazilian in the second round. As soon as Israel knocked out Poatan, there was no containing him!
The very first thing that Adesanya did, was to replicate Alex’s walkout. As Pereira was lying on the mat motionless, Izzy stood over the Brazilian and enacted firing an arrow. After that, Izzy also did a few dance moves. Following that, Adesanya found Alex’s son Alessandro and mocked the child by imitating his father’s brutal KO loss. Adesanya later spoke about the issue and revealed that it was an act of revenge.
Alessandro previously mocked Adesanya in a similar manner after Alex knocked out Izzy during their second kickboxing bout in 2017. So all in all, Adesanya had quite an eventful day on April 8. However, one of his antics that went unnoticed by some, came just before Bruce Buffer announced the official result. As Izzy was making his way to stand in the middle of the Octagon for the result announcement, he did some interesting.
Izzy is NOT a fan of Monster 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/Nl2gr3IAWS
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) April 10, 2023
On the night, Monster Energy had the biggest logo in the Octagon and it was placed right in the middle of the cage. Adesanya walked up to the logo, made a cross sign with his fingers, and then showed both of his middle fingers to the logo. While nobody inside the Octagon stopped Adesanya from doing it, referee Dan Miragliotta could be seen smiling.
Why does Israel Adesanya not like Monster Energy?
For fans who are unaware, this is not the first time that Israel Adesanya has shown his disdain for Monster Energy. There have been several occasions during both post-fight and pre-fight press conferences when Adesanya has purposefully removed bottles and cans of Monster Energy placed beside him. Famously, Adesanya posted a clip of him throwing away a can of the energy drink during the UFC 249 post-fight press conference.
#ad
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) October 25, 2019
Somethings money can’t buy.
Like actual friends, integrity or real skills.#freeplug 🥫 pic.twitter.com/RYDerkAZUA
In the tweet, he wrote, “Somethings money can’t buy. Like actual friends, integrity or real skills.”
However, Israel has never explained the reason behind his dislike for Monster Energy. But, Israel Adesanya is not the only fighter to have issues with Monster Energy. Or to be more precise, they have had issues with the company’s representative Hans Molenkamp. Famously, former UFC bantamweight champ, Dominick Cruz called out Hans after a fight.
He added, “It was just that we’re in a day and age where you can—If I take a picture with Conor McGregor like this, now I’m Conor McGregor’s friend, right? If I take a picture with Dominick Cruz and have him commenting on my page, we’re in a day and age where that looks like we’re friends. Well, I may be your friend, but you can’t use me in order to get clout as they put it. I’m not here to be used.” (h/t via MMA Fighting)
Cruz further alleged that Hans Molenkamp threatens the fighters to appear friendly with him for pictures and videos. But what happens if a fighter declines? According to Cruz, Molenkamp allegedly threatens to take away the sponsorship money that the fighter is earning from Monster Energy, which is worth $54.92 billion. However, there is no word if that is the reason behind him not liking the energy drink company or not.