"We're trying to hurt his feelings because we can't beat him in a cage" - Chael Sonnen slams fans for criticizing Israel Adesanya

Chael Sonnen is backing up Israel Adesanya amidst the criticism that the latter has recently come under due to a lukewarm title defense against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276. Sonnen slammed fans for arguing with one of the greatest middleweight champions in the history of the sport. 'The American Gangster' recently said on YouTube:

"When people choose to go head-to head with Adesanya about fighting, that's a hard one for me. This is a guy who's philosophy, training habits, performance, this is top shelf stuff."

Sonnen further noted that despite the criticism against Adesanya, people are eagerly anticipating the middleweight champion's title defense against former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira. 'Uncle Chael' slammed fans for trying to demoralize 'The Last Styelbender' with words as he appears to be unbeatable in the cage. 'The American Gangster' further opined:

"This whole thing is overlapped by the fact that Adesanya vs. Pereira is the number one fight I want to see in the sport right now. If he's coasting, if he's so bad, if he's so awful, if we're all so upset, how does he then go in to the biggest fight that the sport has to make? Those things, they don't add up... So what are we really doing here? We're seeing greatness and we're trying to beat him the only way we know how, verbally. We're trying to hurt his feelings, because we can't beat him in a cage."

Watch Sonnen's YouTube video below:

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Israel Adesanya is happy with his performance though not 'ecstatic'

Israel Adesanya had promised a Paulo Costa-like fight going into his UFC 276 title defense against Jared Cannonier. However, the fight resembled Adesanya's title defense against Yoel Romero, another lackluster affair for which the middleweight champion was slammed.

However, 'The Last Stylebender' was happy with his performance after rewatching it. While he wasn't 'ecstatic' about it, Adesanya believes it wasn't as bad as fans are making it out to be. The UFC middleweight king said on his YouTube channel:

“I rewatched it two days after the fight and I watched it once, that’s all I needed for now. I was just happy with the performance. I wasn’t ecstatic about the performance, but I was happy with it. It wasn’t what people were trying to make it out to be..."

Watch Adesanya's YouTube video below: