UFC 276: Israel Adesanya explains WWE-inspired Undertaker ring entrance in front of Vince McMahon, Triple H
- UFC middleweight champion reveals why he used wrestling legend’s iconic theme music and outfit for his ring walk
- ‘I like to put on a show and entertain,’ says Adesanya, with WWE head honcho Vince McMahon watching on in front row
Israel Adesanya is known just as much for his flashy walkouts to the UFC Octagon as he is for his flashy moves inside it.
And “The Last Stylebender” did not disappoint on Saturday night, when he headed to the cage for his UFC 276 middleweight title defence against Jared Cannonier dressed as The Undertaker – with the WWE legend’s iconic theme music playing through the T-Mobile Arena to boot.
It proved to be the most exiting part of the main event, with Adesanya picking up a dominant – if dull – unanimous decision win on what he later admitted was “an off night”.
But if the fight didn’t have people in Las Vegas talking, his ring walk certainly did, and WWE head honcho Vince McMahon, as well as his daughter Stephanie McMahon and her husband Paul “Triple H” Levesque, were all sitting in the front row to see it.
WWE had put on its Money in the Bank pay-per-view event at Allegiant Stadium earlier in the night, with the company executives all hot-footing it across the Las Vegas strip to catch the headlining bouts at UFC 276.
“It just works,” Adesanya said at the post-event press conference, of his entrance mimicking that of “The Deadman”. “I don’t know, I’m an artist. I didn’t plan on Vince and Triple H and them being here.
“On Wednesday I was chilling. When we wrestle 12 rounds, towards the end, the last three or four rounds, I chuck on a playlist from YouTube, WWE Attitude from the ‘Attitude Era’ – 20 different tracks from superstars I admire, and that will get me in that zone, and Undertaker’s theme was one of them.