Israel Adesanya Naruto (Credits: Combat Culture)
Massive anime fan Israel Adesanya, talks about how Naruto inspires him in real life
Israel Adesanya came short in his conquest to avenge the two losses to Alex Pereira in kickboxing. At UFC 281, Adesanya dominated the majority of the fight before ‘Poatan’ rallied in the fifth round to get the finish. He defeated Adesanya for the third time, this time via TKO. Adesanya quickly protested the stoppage and has now stated that his leg was compromised going into the fight. However, he remains confident and motivated for getting the victory against ‘Poatan’ in an inevitable rematch.
Israel Adesanya, a proud ‘Weeaboo’ likes to draw themes for his fights. His nickname, ‘Stylebender’ was also inspired by one of his favorite anime shows.
Israel Adesanya discussed the influence of anime on him on the latest episode of Hot Ones:
“It’s helped me tell my own story, be the protagonist in my own story. I’ve already seen the setup for my next storyline, the hunter becomes the hunted. Certain characters and animes, I draw inspiration from. Like when Gai Sensei, who is Rock Lee’s master, when he opened the 8th gate… I cried actually when that moment happened, it’s just inspiring.”
Furthermore, he added that he’s not bothered by people who question his choices at this age:
“People say, ‘Oh, you’re 33,’” he said. “Oh fucking hell, you still trying to rap. Shut up.”
Joe Rogan is mighty impressed by the way former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has conducted himself following the loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Israel Adesanya wasn’t satisfied by the stoppage of his fight against his kickboxing rival. According to ‘The Last Stylebender’, he has seen worse stoppages and the referee should have let him go out on his guard. Despite that, Adesanya gave Pereira he deserved credits, even going as far as to claim that ‘Poatan’s octagon walkout was “beautiful” and epic.
During an appearance on the Flagrant podcast alongside comedian Andrew Schulz, Adesanya claimed that he had planned to pull out of the fight due to a lingering injury. The injury circles back to Adesanya’s last title defense against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276.
Furthermore, Adesanya added that he shelved the plan bearing in mind the implications of the decision. He felt that he would be portraying the image that he was “scared” of Pereira, which has never been the case for ‘The Last Stylebender’.
With that in mind, Rogan spoke about Adedsanya’s character and dignified approach of dealing with the loss in a recent episode of JRE:
“Dude, the way he responded to that loss is better than anybody ever. The dude shows up to the press conference with a f fur coat like a king. Dope-ass watch on and just says, ‘He got me.’ He basically said ‘the hunter is now the hunted, I’m coming after him, I’m going to find a way to beat that dude. I was on my way to beating him, and he got me. He was honest about all of it. About how Pereira landed a bunch of calf kicks early on and f***** up his leg and he couldn’t move right. Those calf kicks have changed the game.”
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