Israel Adesanya News

Tom Taylor - April 18, 2018

Last weekend, on the main card of the UFC’s exciting stop in Glendale, Arizona, Italian middleweight Marvin Vettori gave up a close decision to highly-hyped prospect Israel Adesanya. Since then, he’s made no secret of the fact that he feels the fight should have gone his way. As it turns out, Vettori’s gripes don’t end with the UFC Glendale judges. He’s also got some lingering beef with Adesanya, and promises to slap the striking specialist next time he sees him.

Chris Taylor - April 14, 2018

UFC Glendale Results: Israel Adesanya defeats Marvin Vettori A middleweight scrap between Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori took place during tonight’s UFC on FOX 29 main card in Glendale, Arizona.

Justin Golightly - March 15, 2018

MMA is a revolving door of talent. When one person leaves, hundreds more are waiting to take their place. Despite logging in nearly 80 fights in kickboxing and boxing, Israel Adesanya is just starting his UFC career as Ronda Rousey moves on in her new WWE career. Adesanya is familiar with the bandwagon jumpers, but also smart enough to know that fickle fans will abandom him just like they’ve done to so many other UFC fighters. If the young prospect could give any advice to Rousey, it’s to not care what anyone thinks and just do her own thing. “[I’m] 100 percent [behind Ronda Rousey], you see the work those guys put in and people are so quick to forget [about Rousey’s other accomplishments]. I don’t buy into the whole fandom, I just think with people who are with me. People are so quick to forget how great Ronda was, how much of a pioneer she was in the game.”

Justin Golightly - March 8, 2018

If you weren’t already one singing The Last Style Bender Israel Adesanya’s praises, after just one fight in the UFC he’s already got everyone talking about him. Between the way he talks and the way he wants, but more importantly the way he fights, he’s another young prospect that is hyped to potentially be the next big thing. However, while being controversial can get a lot of eyes on you, it can also turn them away. The UFC isn’t too happy with his pre and post-fight peeing potentially ritual deterring sponsors. “[The UFC] told my manager that, ‘We handle a lot of sponsors, millions of dollars in sponsors. So for him to pretend to be with his dick out and shaking it after he pees as well or whatever, it’s not really a good look.’ For me, how I see it is, f-ck, what are the sponsors worried about: Me pretending to whip an imaginary dick out and pee everywhere to mark my territory or just watching me just beat the f-ck out of a dude? I don’t know what kind of game these sponsors are playing or whatever, but for me, I just have to make a statement and that statement is pretty clear: This is my cage. Any top dog would do it. My stench is still there. Whenever I get back into the cage, I’m sure I’ll smell it.” – Israel Adesanya speaking to FloCombat’s Top Turtle podcast.

Justin Golightly - March 2, 2018

The Last Style Bender Israel Adesanya isn’t intimidated by a quick turnaround. Actually, Adesanya isn’t intimidated by much of anything. He treated the bright lights of his UFC 221 debut just like another fight, which paid off in spades. Next he’ll fight former Venator welterweight champion Marvin Vettori, believing that it won’t go any different than his last dissection. “[Marvin Vettori] got pushed [to insult me on Twitter]. I mean, he wouldn’t say sh-t, he wouldn’t dare say sh-t if the fight wasn’t already signed. I already signed the fight and he took the fight, credit to him. I say whenever these guys take fights with me, I always feel like they think they have something up their sleeve. I mean, but they know who they’re f-cking with. So he may have something up his sleeve, but we’ll find out come April 14th [at UFC Glendale].”

Justin Golightly - February 24, 2018

After his masterful performance against Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221 followed by a ceremonial ‘marking of his territory’, The Last Style Bender Israel Adesanya wanted to jump right back into the Octagon and continue his now 12-fight win streak in MMA, which is just a small blip next to his nearly 60 victories in kickboxing and boxing combined. It looks like he got his wish, Adesanya will fight former Venator FC welterweight champion, Marvin Vettori at UFC Glendale. Maybe I’m doing this UFC thing wrong. But issokay…I’m different 🙂#ufcglendale #mamamia #basghettibolonaise pic.twitter.com/VjmUBUQRoy

Justin Golightly - February 23, 2018

For those who were in the know, Israel Adesanya’s debut at UFC 221 was highly anticipated. After he dissected his opponent and gave his fire emoji post-fight speech though, everyone was leaping onto the bandwagon. Since then, he’s followed up with social media posts and more media appearances, proving to everyone that he’s ready for the spotlight. Some are worried that his performance and personality will cause the UFC to fast track the prospect, but Adesanya isn’t worried about that one bit. In fact, he welcomes it. “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.”

Drake Riggs - February 16, 2018

Very few performances were quite as impressive as the debuting Israel ‘Stylebender’ Adesanya’s at UFC 221. The Nigerian born kickboxer put on a striking masterclass against Rob Wilkinson after stifling his takedown attempts in the first round. Adesanya systematically broke Wilkinson down with punches, kicks and elbows before he eventually wilted and the referee was forced to stop the action. At only 28, Adesanya doesn’t care who he fights next because quite frankly as he told MMAJunkie…he believes the result will be the same no matter who he fights.

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

Though it was shamefully under-promoted, one of the most hyped UFC debuts in recent memory occurred last night on the UFC 221 undercard, as “The Last Style Bender” Israel Adesanya stepped into the Octagon for the first time. Despite a tough first round, throughout which he was taken down and controlled by his opponent Rob Wilkinson, Adesanya ultimately made good on his debut, gaining control of the fight in the second, and unleashing a hellacious beating en route to an impressive TKO win. He’s now 12-0 overall.

Chris Taylor - February 10, 2018

UFC 221 Results: Israel Adesanya TKO’s Rob Wilkinson A middleweight scrap between highly touted promotional newcomer Israel Adesanya and hometown favorite Rob Wilkinson took place on tonight’s UFC 221 prelims.

Justin Golightly - February 9, 2018

Most fighters hope their style gets labeled as something that resembles a killer like Jon Jones or strikes comparisons to the legend Anderson Silva, but not ‘Style Bender’ Israel Adesanya. While he may fit the body type and skill set, he’d rather you not disrespect them — or him for that matter — by constructing mental Venn diagrams of him and them. Going into his UFC debut tomorrow, he wants to showcase something completely new. He wants to showcase himself. “Don’t insult [Jon Jones, Anderson Silva or Michael ‘Venom’ Page] or me by comparing us. I know what they’re trying to do, I know what they’re trying to say, but we’re different people. I watched Anderson Silva at UFC 90. I think it was my first pay-per-view I watched of him. Before that I watched some DVDs, but then UFC 90 I watched him live fight Patrick Cote. He used — probably in the first round — 10 different styles and then in the second round used telekinesis to dismantle [Cote’s] knee. I was like, who’s this skinny black guy?”

Justin Golightly - February 8, 2018

Everyone loves a stylish fighter. Anthony Pettis will forever be remembered from walking up the cage at WEC and flying across the canvas to kick Benson Henderson in the face. You could flip the channel on your TV right now and chances are you may find a highlight of Anderson Silva putting Forrest Griffin in the Matrix. Israel Adesanya will look to turn heads with another knockout worthy of his reel this Saturday in his UFC debut. He believes it’s his destiny as a ‘Style Bender’. “F-ck that. I gave myself the nickname [Style Bender]. People say, ‘Oh, you can’t give yourself a nickname.’ But I was like, why? I make my own destiny. I don’t want my destiny to be in someone else’s hands. It made sense to me, because Aang the Avatar had to realize his potential of being the Avatar by mastering all the elements, which is water, fire, earth and air. And I have to realize my destiny of master all the elements of martial arts to be here [in the UFC].”