DC Doubts Israel Adesanya’s Motivation Ahead Of Nassourdine Imavov Fight

Ahead of Israel Adesanya’s first non-title-fight in six years against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night 250 this weekend, Daniel Cormier has questioned whether the former champ really has the motivation to perform at his very best when the stakes are so low compared to what he’s been used to in the past.

“So like when that moment happens, like against (Kelvin) Gastelum, and he was in the corner in the fifth round and he went, ‘I’ll die for this,’ and he was like mouthing to himself, ‘I’ll die for this, I’ll die for this,’ he had money,” Cormier said on the ‘Good Guy / Bad Guy’ show. “He was a kickboxing champion, but he was fighting for an interim championship with the opportunity to get to Robert Whitaker to become the unified champion. He didn’t have money at the rate that he has right now. He didn’t have the zeros in the bank account. He didn’t have the accolades. He did not have the notoriety.

“He’ll find himself in that fourth to fifth round with Imavov this weekend and have to dig deep knowing that nothing changes if he doesn’t, right? Nothing changes. Israel Adesanya will still be a star if he wins or he loses. Israel Adesanya will still collect the same paycheck on Saturday night if he loses. The money he has in the bank remains the same. All of his investments and properties will remain the same.

“How does he pull back to that moment when he didn’t have all those things if need be? I never in my life fought a five-round main event that wasn’t for a championship, and I’ve got to be honest: I don’t think that I could. I don’t think I could have went 25 minutes without knowing that there was a shiny gold belt waiting on the end of that because it’s hard to pull that dog out of you whenever you don’t get that thing that means so much when the night’s over.”