Israel Adesanya’s coach claims they made a mistake at UFC Saudi Arabia
Israel Adesanya‘s coach has claimed that they made a mistake in his loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia last weekend.
On Saturday night, Israel Adesanya fell short in his battle with Nassourdine Imavov. Israel Adesanya was beaten via TKO in the early stages of the second round, in the wake of what was a pretty competitive opening to the fight. Of course, since the loss, many have been analyzing what exactly it was that went wrong.
Many feel like Israel Adesanya didn’t give himself enough time to recover after an apparent accidental eye poke from Imavov. His striking coach, Mike Angove, recently weighed in on that debate.
Israel Adesanya’s coach believes they made a mistake
“The name of the game, particularly in small gloves: You can’t make mistakes,” Angove told Submission Radio. “We made a mistake. Nassourdine, I would say, with his team, recognized when we made that mistake and they jumped on it – which means they have to have planned. So you’ve got to congratulate them for that. Izzy got poked in the eye. There was a break. Izzy didn’t want to take the break – was just keen on getting on with it. But in doing that, he didn’t reset as you normally would and create some space.
“That means you’re still in the firing zone, and then you want him to keep the pressure on. It’s just one of those things. It just happens. He felt he was doing well in the fight and wanted to keep that pressure on, and Nassourdine caught him switching – beautiful right hand that resonated around the stadium and he couldn’t recover from that. It was right on the button, and then he followed up with a left hook against the cage and the referee came and stopped it.”
“No, he just got clipped in the eye,” Angove said when asked if the eye poke impacted the end of the fight. “It does put you off momentarily, but he could see clearly enough when it came to reset. It’s just one of those things: You’ve got to be careful.
“An experienced pro will cram the distance when the referee breaks something. You have to create your own space. You reset or circle back to the center. But in the heat of the moment, you want to put the pressure on, which is what happened. That’s just what happens. That’s the fight. At the end of the day, it’s just a fight, so we just have to deal with it.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
