“People believe that football is a matter of life or death. It disappoints me, because I can guarantee it’s much more than that,” said Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool coach, somewhere in 1981. Shankly did talk about football, but it’s not just this industry that evokes great emotions in people. If there is one sport where emotions come out it is the MMA industry and the best example of this we got in February 2019, in Melbourne Australia.
So, in the main fight of UFC 234 event, Kevin Gastelm and Israel Adsania met for a fight that at the end of five rounds, became one of the biggest and most exciting that had been in the octagon in recent years, regardless of the identity of the winner. Between the fourth and fifth rounds, Adsania could be seen mumbling to Gastelm in the words: “You will not beat me, I am ready to die”, strong words that came a second before one of the biggest rounds in history (Watch the fifth round of the battle in the video player above).
In an interview with British Sports BT, Adsania revealed the feelings he went through in that fight, and even explained the words that came out of his mouth between rounds: “If I’m willing to die, I’m also willing to kill. That’s what people do not understand. I really meant it, I signed my life “I said to myself, ‘If I die like this, what a glorious death, what a way to get out. In front of the whole world, in a crazy battle.’
“I had some negative thoughts, ‘You did everything you needed to, you cut it,’ but all I said to myself at that moment was ‘Shut up, I’m busy.’ That’s what I said to myself. Then I went to work and in the fifth round, I looked at him and told him I was ready. “It was just a crazy battle, a battle that has become part of history.”
At the end of the fight, which lasted all 25 possible minutes, Adsania won after a referee decision, but anyone who saw the fight knew that to the same extent he could have ended up stopping a referee. In about two weeks Adsania went out for another fight of his, at UFC 276, where he will defend his belt at medium weight for the fifth time. Judging by this battle above, as well as by the rest of his battles, a huge central battle awaits us on July 2nd.