Last night (October 5, 2019) Israel Adesanya emerged as Anderson Silva 2.0 ….. or Jon Jones without the blems or conspicuous expiry date. If you squint your eyes, he is the young Cassius Clay/Mohammad Ali with a twist; a saucily self-absorbed ham, given to mirror-gazing-and-smoochin’, when he is not muggin’ n’ winking at secrets he dares not keep.
There is something profound going on here; the story of a slugger scaling the heights of Olympus while boxing shadows more real than goblins of his childhood imagination. In this un-fable, Israel is Icarus, looking for a soft landing. Time stamp and bookmark this one; you are gonna need it. (Incrucible.Net)
But for the record, Israel is probably the best thing to happen to the UFC, post-Fertitta brothers and the heyday of Anderson “The Spiderman” Silva. No hater-ade here; just straight-ade … no chaser.
After the initial hype, dash ‘n flash; and after UFC 236 and 243 it’s beyond dispute: Adesanya is a wily tactician who could probably kickbox his way out of an angry bar while dropping Ali-esque one-liners to floor jaws and make his competitors look like dodo birds.
From Louiville to Auckland, The Lip Rides Again: (Adesanya’s precocious patter ‘n chatter makes one look up and take immediate notice. But therein within that extra dash and flash; that extra sauce may be Adesanya’s weakness; his Achilles heel if you will; the need for a high wire act that projects grounded tone and tonality. This is actually harder than most people realize. People on the street call it keepin’ it real, and those in the rarefied environs of academe call it (in the argot cultural criticism) “projecting authenticity.”
Put another way, Adesanya’s pufferies and bloviations can come across as a bit over the top … and cloyingly so at times. Cue UFC 243 post-fight press conference as case in point and suss out unhealthy doses of Henry Cejudo and Conor McGregor within that saccharine mix …. rarely good associations, rarely a good associations.
But by a more recent comparo, Jorge Masvidal gets it just about right, except when he virtually shouts-out Donald Trump and therein flubs the nuances of political messaging and the crude uses that it can be put to by the craven. But that, chillen, is a story for another day. We frankly ask too much when we expect our sports jockstraps to grok the nuances and vulgarities of political messaging. Straight up! Money buys stuff, but never insight, never insight.
And Now Concerning a Language, Not His Father’s Own (Read That English): On this topic, Israel really needs to reflect deeper than he has to date on his reflexive tendency to rib others for not being as fluent in a language, which, the last time I checked, was not his own, or his father’s and mother’s for that matter. I’ve witnessed two instances of this tendency, and I have cringed …. FOR HIM.
Historical Fact: Nigeria was colonized by Britain in the 19th Century which ushered in English’s as the official language. So the next time Adesanya blithely chides people for not speaking proper English or ribs Romero for being “so slow” in publicity pressers, he needs to remind himself where the language he confidently mimes came from. Ditto the uses it has been put to, including the laceration of the colonized which includes his father …. and himself by generational imprinting. Cue Frantz Fanon on metropolitan languages and natives’ inferiority complexes.
“To speak means being able to use a certain syntax and possessing the
morphology of such and such a language, but it means above all assuming a
culture and bearing the weight of a civilization.” (Black Skins, White Masks, The Black Man and Language, Frantz Fanon)
But That Said, Let Izzy Dance His Tight Arse Off, ROTFLM#AO!: Yep, the vogueing is A-OK – drawing, as it does, from a fount of “Roots and Culture” that is as deep as it is wide. Adesanya was born in Nigeria. And Nigerians are up there when it comes to novel forms of cultural fusion, appropriation and innovation cross-polinated to the nth degree. Yes, Nigerians are a wily and innovative bunch.
If (up to now) you still have no clue what I’m talking about, despair not; you are probably not alone. This micro-critique is infinitesimally calibrated for the sighted; moles and astigmatics need not apply.
Israel Adesanya: Too Much of a Good Thing or Lizzo of the Octagon? The over-the-top Adesanya appeals to the raucous WWE set of the post-McGregor/Ronda Rousy wasteland. But there is a downside to untrammeled exuberance as we have seen before. There is something profound going on here; the story of a slugger scaling the heights of Olympus while boxing shadows more real than goblins of his childhood imagination. In this un-fable, Israel is Icarus, looking for a soft landing. Time stamp and bookmark this one; you are gonna need it. Caption Copyright, Incrucible.Net, Photo Copyright, Steven Ryann Getty Images
Tone, Tonality: The Hardest Schtick of All. Hint, Hint: Usman Has A Better Handle on It – Those with sight and insight may have already intuited: Israel’s pronouncements have, among other things, elements of self-consciousness that hamper their penetrative quotient. They oft come across as studied or a bit over the top, and the residual effect is less than salutary.
The studied self-consciousness undermines Adesanya’s sense of unscripted authenticity while his exuberance gives off whiffs of contrivance. (Quoth: “I say a lot of things.” ) The exuberance comes across as slightly off kilter and overwrought. Conor Mcgregor, Henry Cejudo anyone? See UFC 243 post-fight presser.
Again as an off-handed comparo, put Usman side by side with Adesanya, and you will have a form of a measuring stick with which to measure apples with apples. One of them comes across as more grounded than the other. Guess which one and you’ll be up for honorary
Separate personalities? Well, yes, but that does not totally explain why one is exponentially that self-conscious, that fluffy. If you are not zeroing in on this, then you are missing out on vital clues, cues and tells.
Usman’s post fight presser is equally a good jumping-off point for a comparo of the twain.
The over-the-top Adesanya persona appeals to the raucous WWE-set of the post-McGregor/post-Honda Housey wasteland. (Colby Covington need not apply because he is a cartoon at the intersection of mockery and fakery masquerading as entertainment.
Filed under: MMA, Uncategorized, BNSG, Colby Covington, Frantz Fanon on language and the mind of the colonized, incrucible.net, Israel Adesanya as Lizzo of the Octagon, Jorge Masvidal on Donald Trump, Lewis Carroll, Robert Whitaker, UFC 243, Yoel Romero
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