Israel Adesanya, Chris Weidman get into volatile war of words over potential matchup

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

With two weeks’ worth of quarantine to get through following his win over Paulo Costa at UFC 253, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has been quite active on social media lately responding to his biggest fans and his harshest critics.

One of his most fiery encounters came against former champion Chris Weidman after he took aim at “The Last Stylebender” over a pair of opponents they’ve shared in the past.

“Heyyy I just realized I have 2 common opponents with Adesanya,” Weidman wrote on Twitter. “[Kelvin] Gastelum who I finished. Then [Anderson] Silva who I finished twice.

“Adesanya squeaked by decisions on both of those guys.. Adesanya is just another Silva without the black belt in [jiu-jitsu]. Easy.”

Weidman has been vocal lately about how he matches up with Adesanya as he seeks to get back to the top of the division following a win over Omari Akhmedov in his most recent appearance in the octagon.

Needless to say, it didn’t take long for Adesanya to see Weidman’s post and offer his response.

“Get some wins first please,” Adesaya told Weidman. “I already have you figured out. I’ve sized you up a few times. Watched you hit and miss I know how to f*ck up your single and double leg attacks I’m 10 steps ahead like I said.

“I knew I would use this clip one day to prove that I knew!”

Adesanya accompanied his response with a video that he shot at some point in the past where Weidman was standing nearby as he promised to “f*ck” him up if they ever met in the cage.

According to Weidman, he remembers that particular moment but he apparently got a much different impression of Adesanya that night.

“You were very nice to my face that night to be talking like that on your phone. Two faced as hell!” Weidman said.

“I would grab your weak ass and crush you! YOU remember our interactions that night and YOU know this is a problem you don’t want.”

Adesanya closed the encounter by more or less declaring victory over Weidman in this particular exchange over social media.

“They start it…I finish it,” Adesanya wrote. “I can troll like 5 people at a time. But then the quality drops. Gets some wins first Chris. You don’t want WAR!!”

As much as this exchange might earn them attention, Adesanya has already made it clear that his next challenge will likely come from the upcoming fight at UFC 254 when former champion Robert Whittaker takes on Jared Cannonier. As for Weidman, his win over Akhmedov got him back on track after suffering through a 1-5 record over six fights.

Assuming Weidman can build on that victory with at least a couple more high profile performances, then perhaps he can look to challenge Adesanya for the title in the future.