Israel Adesanya feels he’s made the best move to get back on the winning track.
It’s been over three years since Adesanya last had his hand raised inside the octagon, when he recaptured the UFC middleweight title with a stunning knockout over longtime rival Alex Pereira. Unfortunately for Adesanya, his second championship reign ended without a successful defense as he was upset by Sean Strickland, and then went on to be finished in his next three fights against Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov, and Joe Pyfer.
Something had to give, so Adesanya made the decision in July to part ways with the City Kickboxing team in New Zealand, the gym he called home since 2009. Now with a smaller team built specifically for him, Adesanya is booming with confidence ahead of his next fight, rumored to be a meeting with Shara Bullet at UFC Saudi Arabia on Dec. 5.
“Training camp’s been awesome,” Adesanya said in a training camp vlog. “This is like a cliché, I guess that everyone says, ‘The best training camp I’ve ever had,’ but I can truly say with my departure from my old gym, CKB, and now building the team that I have and training specifically for me, this is the best I’ve felt in a very long time. For real.
“I think this is the best training camp—this is the most fun training camp I’ve had in the last—when was Pereira in New York? 2022? ‘23? This is the most fun training camp I’ve had in years. That’s going to show on fight night. I’ve been in fight week shape for weeks, my regular fight week shape. I look forward to how I’ll look on fight week this time. Holy shit.”
Adesanya emphasized that his current team is built to focus on his preparation, as opposed to a larger gym like City Kickboxing, which has housed numerous high-level fighters including UFC champions Alexander Volkanovski and Carlos Ulberg, former champion Robert Whittaker, and veteran contenders Dan Hooker and Kai Kara-France.
When Adesanya first announced the split, he called it “bittersweet,” though he didn’t elaborate on why he made the change. In his latest vlog, he again hinted at an explanation without explicitly stating a reason.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Adesanya said. “Like, I could have been a better teammate because I could have made better bonds at CKB with certain people who I’ve trained with for years, and I did make some close bonds, but I feel like I could have been a better teammate in certain aspects. Even though I was a great teammate and I did for a lot for a lot of people, I was there for a lot of people, but I just felt like, you can always do more.
“When I sit back and look at it, I’m like, I hid behind them sometimes and just let the idiot take over. But that’s me being self-aware now. I can’t say the same for other people, if they can be self-aware and be like, ‘Yep, I f*cked up as a coach’ or ‘I f*cked up here, here, here.’ … Look in the f*cking mirror and just know what you did and be better. I’m being better now. I have nothing to hide; let’s go. I’m glad that I’m here and I can just f*cking own my shit and know I’m going to be better now from all the lessons I learned. All the f*ck-shit I did, all the great shit I did, too. Don’t let them ever tell you otherwise or let them tell you, ‘He got too big for his boots.’ F*ck off. I know who I am and I’ll never let anyone tell me otherwise.”
