Det var många som hade stora förhoppningar på ”The Last Style Bender” Israel Adesanya, en Nya Zeeländsk fighter med rötter i Nigeria. Han gjorde sin UFC-debut på UFC 221: Romero vs. Rockhold och tog sig an Mike Wilkinson.
Adesanya dominerade Wilkinson stående och avslutade honom via TKO i andra ronden.
“This what I’ve been planning for all along,” sa Adesanya till MMAnytt efter debuten. My plan from the get-go was to be an international prize fighter and part of that is having to deal with media and people and all that. For me, I just make sure I keep the same energy.
“I evolve, but I keep the same energy and my spirit stays the same. Ain’t nothing changing, but the change, and that’s all good for us.”
Tillbaka i gymmet måndagen efter matchen
Adesanya har fått mycket uppmärksamhet från media efter matchen, men han låter det inte stiga honom åt huvudet. Han var tillbaka på gymmet redan dagen efter matchen – med hopp om att få en ny matchning snarast.
“I enjoyed myself last week and I’ve been at the gym since,” fortsatte Adesanya. “Now it’s Monday and I’m still working my a** off.
Everything has been nice and this and that, even when I had my press after the fight and when like 12 cameras came to the gym, people were just waiting to hear what I had to say next and I told them ‘look, this is all nice and stuff. You have a job to do and I have a job to do, I’ll be your media darling, but I just take this all with a grain of salt.’
“This is where the bread is made, the bread is made in the gym and I wanna stack bread like sliced bread.”
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Har gått nära 100 matcher i olika kampsporter
När han till slut gjorde sin UFC-debut hade Adesanya 11-0 i matchfacit, men vägen har varit mycket längre än så. Han har närmare 100 matcher i boxning, muay thai och kickboxning. Det var dock en del av planen, då Adesanya ville vara redo att ta sig an eliten redan från början.
“That’s why we took so long to get to the UFC. We took our time coming to the UFC because we wanted to make sure that if they gave us a top-15 or top-10 or even top-5 straight away, that I would be ready. We wanted to make sure that I could take on anyone in the world.
“All these other people coming from ‘Looking for a Fight’ and they jump in the UFC after 3 or 4 fights, some of them do well, some of them don’t. Before you swim in the depths of the ocean you got to make sure you can swim with sharks. The difference is I don’t just swim with the sharks, I eat them and that’s what I’m about to do.”
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Möter Marvin Vettori på UFC on FOX 29: Poirier vs. Gaethje
Bara ett par dagar efter debuten bekräftade MMAJunkie att Adesanya är klar för sin nästa match. I april tar han sig an italienaren Marvin Vettori.
Vettori har ett matchfacit på 12-3-1 och har ett facit i UFC på 2-1-1 och gick i sin senaste match till ett oavgjort resultat mot den tuffe ryssen Omari Akhmedov.
