Israel Adesanya says there’s one fighter on the UFC roster that really gets on his nerves.
The former two-time UFC Middleweight Champion crossed paths with many rivals during his title reigns from Alex Pereira to Sean Strickland to current champ Dricus du Plessis.
Of course, that’s only a fraction of the fighters with whom Adesanya has traded barbs.
Adesanya didn’t consider himself much of a hater until he turned on the TV on Saturday to watch his friend Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC Atlanta.
Adesanya had no love for Usman’s comeback opponent, Joaquin Buckley, a former middleweight who talked an even bigger game after becoming a welterweight contender.
Israel Adesanya confesses he hates Joaquin Buckley: ‘He’s so annoying’
Buckley’s plan to knock out Usman ultimately backfired on fight night as the former pound-for-pound king put on a vintage performance across five rounds, controlling Buckley with his takedowns to win a unanimous decision.
Buckley talked to Usman mid-fight from the bottom position and later said Usman was more concerned with taking him down than he was hurting him.
While supporting his longtime friend Usman, Adesanya expressed his dislike for ‘New Mansa’.
“I hate this n—-, bro,” Adesanya said of Buckley on his YouTube channel.
“I don’t even use the word hate lightly, but I hate this n—-, bro.
“Something about him just f—— annoys me.
“Like, literally, I’m just trying to chill talk, [then Buckley is] like, hey man, we gotta get this going… Like he’s rapping to me every single time.
“He’s just so f—— annoying. At one point, I literally just walked away as he was talking.”
“Maybe I’m just a hater, bro… I’m a hater, bro. I understand it now. I get it. I understand it now. I’ll be sipping that ‘haterade’, man.
“Retire!” Adesanya said after Buckley was defeated by Usman.
“I’m finally a hater. I understand it now,” Adesanya laughed.
Joaquin Buckley said Israel Adesanya’s career was ‘never the same’ after revealing how to beat him
The second-greatest middleweight of all time, Adesanya finds himself on a losing skid in 2025.
Adesanya has lost three fights in a row to Sean Strickland, Dricus du Plessis and France’s Nassourdine Imavov, who knocked him out at UFC Riyadh in February.
While on The Joe Rogan Experience last summer, Buckley gave a breakdown on how to beat Adesanya, explaining how you have to cut angles on him to land a KO blow.
“Once I gave my take on how to beat Izzy on JRE I feel like Buddy career has never been the same,” Buckley wrote on X following Adesanya’s KO loss to Imavov.