MMA News: Israel Adesanya makes UFC 303 prediction, UFC 306 Sphere graphics, Sean Strickland rock climbing incident

I'll be breaking down the news from around the combat sports world and giving you my take on it in this new daily column. Check back every morning to see the biggest or most obscure headlines and what I think about them below.

Israel Adesanya makes UFC 303 prediction

THE NEWS: Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has made his UFC 303 prediction for the main event between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka. “I’m going to go Jiri, because we’re the chosen few,” Adesnaya said on this YouTube channel. “But also, I think he might have learned from his mistake because people don’t understand, and it also makes things interesting — if [Jiri beats Alex] then it’s a trifecta, a trilogy, yeah.

MY THOUGHTS: It is no shock to me that Adesnaya wouldn't pick Pereira to beat Prochazka. Adesanya has fought Pereira four times and won just once, so there's no way he's going to be kind to his former foe. But his thoughts that Prochazka could have learned to fix the mistakes from the first fight could ring true. We'll have to wait and see what actually happens.

UFC 306 Sphere graphics unveiled

THE NEWS: The UFC unveiled the first graphics for UFC 306 which will be a Riyadh Season Noche event at the Las Vegas Sphere.

MY THOUGHTS: The graphics and colors look incredible, as I knew they would be. But I wish there was a bit more fight flavor. If you didn't know what Noche was and were just looking at the graphics it might not be something you'd understand. But that's just me being ultra-critical, it looks awesome.

Sean Strickland caught on viral video during rock climbing incident

THE NEWS: A video surfaced online that showed Sean Strickland and his brother almost getting into a fight at rock climbing facility with two of the instructors. After the video leaked, Strickland gave his side of the story. “This is the god’s honest truth: I went to this place because you can use your own rope, clip in wherever and climb whatever route you want,” Strickland wrote on Twitter. “So I’m there for about 45 minutes and I meet this pretty dope female climber, so we start climbing together and talking. Literally just being friendly, not hitting on her anything. So apparently this was her [boyfriend] and after being there for an hour this salty dork comes up to me and says, ‘Do you have a certification? You can’t climb this without getting one from the gym.’ I had zero idea you needed one. No one told me.”

He continued, “I was mad because you could of asked me when I signed the waiver, or when I paid, or when I was climbing but instead you chose to ask me 45 minutes in after I meet your girl,” Strickland continued. “Just a c*nt move to do: ‘I don’t like you being friends with my girl, show me your certification, okay now leave.’ Lmao well played sir... but yes I very much wanted to hit him but I didn’t want to go to jail more lol.”

MY THOUGHTS: In terms of Strickland news, this is pretty tame. It's getting to be less and less shocking when Strickland does something weird or inappropriate and at least he didn't kill anyone.