Israel Adesanya Calls Anderson Silva A ‘Cunning Troll’

Rising UFC middleweight Israel Adesanya has the utmost respect for his legendary opponent Anderson Silva heading into their co-main event at Saturday’s UFC 234 from Melbourne, Australia. That doesn’t mean he won’t call ‘The Spider’ a troll, however.

‘The Last Stylebender’ is poised to truly break into the MMA mainstream if he can get past the Brazilian all-time great. Adesanya spent his debut year in the UFC winning four consecutive bouts in dominant fashion. Silva, meanwhile, spent the year on the sidelines figuring out his USADA drug test situation. He was eventually cleared, but he’ll have been out of action for two full years when he finally sets foot into the cage to fight Adesanya.

You’d think that would create a sort of mismatch for the 43-year-old legend, and the betting odds indeed state it is. But Adesanya isn’t counting on the odds. He recently told ESPN.com that Silva’s absence may have made him an even more dangerous opponent when asked:

“Yeah, because you don’t know what he’s been doing. And also it’s Anderson Silva: At the end of the day, he’s the longest-running UFC champion for a reason.””

A Cunning Troll

That may be true, yet Silva still only has one official win since October 2012. That was a hotly-debated decision win over Derek Brunson at 2017’s UFC 208. By comparison, Adesanya essentially toyed with an overmatched Brunson before finishing him at November’s UFC 203. Despite that, Adesanya is weary of Silva’s in-cage intelligence, calling him a ‘troll’ of his opponents. It’s his job to ‘out-troll’ him as a result:

“He’s very cunning, he’s very smart and the way he approaches the game, he’s a troll. So, yeah, that will be a battle of the wits, a battle of the minds, and we’ll see who can out-troll one another.”

Adesanya and Silva will throw down in one of the middleweight division’s clearest changing-of-the-guard bouts in years. The winner will most likely move on to a coveted title shot in their next bout. They may own the title of the UFC’s top troll as well, at least according to ‘The Last Stylebender.’