'I think he's better than me'… Israel Adesanya heaps praise on teammate who earned UFC contract with a huge KO win on DWCS
12/09/2024 12:12
The City Kickboxing team continues to grow in the UFC and an 11th CKB member earned their UFC contract this past Tuesday with a terrifying knockout win on Dana White’s Contender Series.
After just five professional MMA fights, Navajo Stirling has earned his shot in the UFC after scoring an emphatic second-round knockout against Phillip Latu on Dana White’s Contender Series week five, this past Tuesday.
Coming into the bout, there was a lot of hype around the 26-year-old striker because he trains at City Kickboxing with the likes of Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker, and many others.
Israel Adesanya claims Navajo Stirling is ‘better than me’ following KO win
Stirling has been compared to ‘The Last Stylebender’ because of the similarities in their striking and with his left hook knockout over Latu, the comparisons have continued.
“Everything he said he wanted to do, he did it spectacularly. (We’re) similar because we train from the same gym as well, we’re both tall. Definitely, he’s learned a lot from us, not just myself,” Adesanya said in a video on his YouTube channel.
The former middleweight champion went on to admit that he thinks the 26-year-old is ‘better’ than him and that he will show his potential in the coming years.
“Navajo is his own beast, you’ll see his own style show, if you think he’s like me now, I think he’s better than me. He’s evolved like the next version because of his grappling intelligence as well, which I have but I just don’t use it, but he actually uses it because he’s young,” Adesanya continued.
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Navajo Stirling reveals he already has his debut UFC fight booked
Following the biggest win of his career, Stirling admitted that he was dealing with a staph infection twice heading into his DWCS opportunity.
“I had staph like two times in like a couple of weeks about a month ago… I had one decent week training and just thought we’d figure it out while we’re in there,” Stirling told Submission Radio.
Only a few days removed from his UFC contract win, the 26-year-old has revealed that he already has a date and name set for his full UFC debut and that he wants to be an extremely active light heavyweight.
“I’ve actually just been told today that I’m already locked in. I can’t say anything but, yeah, I’m pretty excited I’ve got a name and a date, I think it’s all just getting put through now so yeah we’re locked in, UFC debut 2024.
“I get a little upset about with some guys, they just really don’t utilize their time in the sport and they’re coming in off big layoffs and they’re losing hype a lot of the time,” Stirling added.
