Adesanya: I lost respect for Romero in fight

Israel Adesanya says he lost respect for Yoel Romero in the UFC 248 main event Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, beat Romero by unanimous decision to defend his belt for the first time. But "The Last Stylebender" didn't expect such a lackluster affair.

"You've seen I don’t have boring fights," Adesanya said at the postfight press conference, according to MMA Fighting. "I look for people who want to fight. I called out the guy that everyone is supposedly scared of. I'm like, 'What’s so scary about him?' I kicked his fucking leg. I kicked it over and over again. It was not steel. He's human and he acts like he's (not). I definitely lost respect for him. I definitely lost respect for what I thought was gonna be a really difficult challenge to overcome."

Adesanya used strong leg kicks and his jab to outpoint "The Soldier of God," but at times he seemed worried to engage with such a powerful foe. Romero tried to rush forward to land big shots but found little success. Neither fighter did much damage at all.

"It’s not the fight I wanted to have," Adesanya said. "I had a different vision for how this fight was going to end. But it takes two to tango. I can’t force a guy to fight."

He added: "That was really bizarre. I might well have used just a training dummy at my gym as my sparring partner. It was just really bizarre because I was expecting a little bit more."