It was all love from the Australian crowd as the UFC 293 press conference got underway in Sydney, Australia on Thursday evening, down under time (watch the full presser here).
The Sydney crowd cheered middleweight champion Israel Adesanya as he took his seat. They cheered his opponent Sean Strickland as well, and even seemed to reveled in the “Tarzan” trash talk from the brash challenger. Strickland was happy to play the villain, and Sydney was just happy to have someone willing to entertain them for their first proper pay-per-view card since 2011.
Strickland brought out all his greatest hits on “The Last Stylebender,” repeatedly calling him “Chinaman” and accusing him of being a Chinese champion that had sold out to Chinese interests. Adesanya no-sold those accusations, accepting the title and even shouting out Grandmaster Philip Lam, who he credited with bringing kickboxing and Muay Thai to New Zealand.
Interestingly enough, it was flyweight Manel Kape who got under Adesanya’s skin early. Kape was supposed to fight Adesanya’s teammate Kai Kara-France at UFC 293, but Kara-France was forced to withdraw with a concussion.
“Unfortunately, Kai Kara-France is a b—,” Kape shouted at the one-time UFC interim flyweight title challenger. “A f—ing b—h. In front of me, and you are f—ing guilty because this kid [replacement fighter Felipe dos Santos] is going to pay. Because you’re a f—ing p—y. You had three weeks to fight me, you little f—ing p—y. Look at you. You have the courage to come here. Yeah, stand up motherf—er! Stand the f— up motherf—er!”
That led to Israel Adesanya getting up and crossing the stage, and a mob of security materialized to keep the two fighters apart.
“Sit the f— down!” Kape shouted as Adesanya taunted him. “I’ll f— you up. Shut your mouth!”
“Look at this little midget trying to f— with me,” Adesanya replied. “I’ll f—ing bury you!”
A confused Tai Tuivasa was stuck between the two fighters and pleaded for everyone to chill out. Even Sean Strickland got in on the incident.
“Calm the f— down!” Strickland yelled. “That’s not the fight. Leave the little man alone. I’m supposed to be the a—hole here, Izzy! That’s not your job.”
That was as hot as the press conference got. “The Last Stylebender” remained calm through the majority of the press conference … almost too calm for Sean Strickland’s liking. Strickland repeatedly tried to coax responses out of Adesanya, only to receive simple one word answers. As the conference ended, Adesanya responded to ‘sell out’ accusations by accusing Strickland of selling out to Monster Energy.
He seemed more hyped up to talk trash about Monster than Strickland, honestly. We haven’t heard this much public heat getting thrown at the UFC sponsor since Dominick Cruz trashed them a few years ago.
Just another wild and wacky press conference from the UFC as we head into the final days of UFC 293 fight week.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 293 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard on ESPNN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 293: “Adesanya vs. Strickalnd” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
