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Whilst his momentum may have slowed somewhat since 2021, Israel Adesanya remains one of the UFC's biggest stars at this moment, and he is scheduled to take on Sean Strickland in a middleweight title bout on Saturday.
With all the preparations for the fight now all but complete, Adesanya had a final message for Strickland.
He threatened his opponent with a broken jaw if Strickland 'runs his mouth' during the bout.
"I do wanna shut him up and I'm gonna shut him up, I'm gonna break his jaw if he keeps talkin to me while he's in there, trust," Adesanya told TMZ Sports.
"When you're talkin, you never know when a shot's coming, the jab can hit you while your mouth open and send you jaw to the back of your head.
"Sean should just thank me. He got his passport, he got the fight, he gets to travel out of the country for the first time and actually see the world instead of being a fu*king hillbilly, so yeah, he should thank me.
"He should really appreciate the fact that I got him the opportunity and he's gonna get paid."
Adesanya has momentum
The Adesanya steam train had slowed a bit, as previously mentioned, however after his huge victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287, he reclaimed his middleweight belt in spectacular fashion.
He remains one of the most enigmatic finishers in mixed martial arts, however Strickland should have confidence of his own after winning two back-to-back fights against Nassourdine Imavov and Absupiyan Magomedov respectively.
The fight itself wasn't meant to happen this quickly. Adesanya had initially penciled in to battle the no.1 contender for his belt, Dricus Du Plessis, but he suffered an injury which kept him out of action for the September 9 date.
