Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah reveals Israel Adesanya inspired his viral goal celebration: ‘I’m a UFC fan’
Liverpool forward, Mohamed Salah has revealed he is an avid fan of mixed martial arts and in particular, the UFC — claiming his choice of recent bow-and-arrow-themed celebrations in the Premier League was inspired by Israel Adesanya — with Brazilian star, Alex Pereira holding the patent for the move.
Salah, a veteran forward for Arne Slot’s Liverpool side, has scored twice so far this season in the side’s first two Premier League outings — launching a couple of bow and arrow celebrations after finding the net against both Ipswitch Town and Brentford.
Mohamed Salah reveals inspiration for new bow and arrow-themed celebration
And revealing the inspiration for his new celebration, Mohamed Salah claimed former two-time middleweight titleholder, Adesanya inspired him to use the emote — despite the fact former two-division champion, Pereira christened the move in his Octagon debut.
“I think I was watching the UFC, it was (Alex) Pereira against Israel (Adesanya),” Mohamed Salah told Men in Blazers during a recent interview. “When he won the second fight with Pereira he celebrated like that. Pereira I think beat him in the first one. I like the celebration and that’s why I did it. I am a UFC fan.”
Fighting most recently in the main event of UFC 305 just earlier this month, Adesanya succumbed to his second consecutive loss in a middleweight title fight against Dricus du Plessis.
Suffering his first two-fight losing skid in his decorated mixed martial arts career, City Kickboxing star, Adesanya was submitted in the fourth round of his championship fight with Pretoria native, du Plessis with a rear-naked choke in Perth, Australia.
Adesanya faced the above-mentioned, Pereira back in April of last year in Florida, turning in a rallying second round knockout win over the Brazilian to reclaim the undisputed middleweight crown, before losing a shutout loss to common-foe, Sean Strickland later that year ‘Downunder.
