Israel Adesanya Mindset of a Champion

Everyone has a champion inside  of them, but some people seem to be born with that mindset and discipline  which elevates them to the next level. One such champion with great promise is Israel  Stylebender Adesanya who is a Nigerian-born, professional mixed martial artist. He  is also a former kickboxer and boxer. As a mixed martial artist, this 6 ft 4 inch genius  is currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is the UFC Middleweight  Champion and has a record of 20-1. In ki

ckboxing, he is a former Glory Middleweight Championship  title challenger. As of March 30, 2021, he ranks number 5 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound list.  Adesanya is widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the world of mixed martial arts. Now why do we say he has the mindset of a champion? What are the qualities he has that  should inspire us? Lets dive in and find out! Adesanya was born in Lagos and was the  eldest of his five siblings. He enrolled in Taekwondo classes and did really

well  until he had to leave because of an injury. The whole family then moved to Ghana for 10  months. His schooling there changed his life. He was a quiet boy interested in anime like Death  Note and Naruto and didn't like sports much. He was bullied a lot in Rotorua Boys' High  School and that led him to pick up martial arts in the future to keep the bullys at bay. At  18, he started his training in kickboxing and got off to a quick 8 and 0 start. This spurred him  to go professional and at 21

, when he moved to Australia, he trained with future UFC fighters  like Dan hooker, Volkanovski and Kara-France. This paved way for him to become a seasoned  fighter and build on his strong mindset. His professional MMA debut was in 2012  against James Griffith where he won via TKO and he repeated the same with his next fight  against John Vake. But after that he took a two year hiatus from MMA and in 2015 he had a  comeback fight against Chinese fighter Song Kenan. He won that fight with a head

kick to song  and finished him off with ground and pound. He scored a 8-0 record and won the AFC  Middleweight Championship in Australia with a first round TKO against Melvin Guillard. With no  losses, Adesanya's record seems to be clean, he showed a lot of talent and people were obviously  curious as to where and how he's gonna end up. He signed a contract with the UFC in December 2017  and his debut was against Rob Wilkinson in UFC 221. He won the second fight by TKO and this  got him the Perf

ormance of the Night bonus. He won his next match with Marvin Vettori by  a split decision. His next opponent was Brad Tavares on 6th July 2018 in the UFC finale.  He won unanimously and he yet again obtained the Performance of the Night award. Again in  UFC 230, he won against Derek Brunson via TKO. This earned him his third performance of the night  award. He also went on to win against Anderson Silva who was the former UFC Middleweight Champion  and both of them got the Fight of the Night awa

rd. In his bout against Silva his childhood hero  he showed a lot of poise and mental toughness. Even though Silva may have been  nearing the end of his fight career he is still regarded as one of the  most dangerous fighters in the cage. He's been the contender to being a champion since  his early days! In 2010, Adesanya defeated Tim Atonio unanimously. He won the next six fights  and got a place in the 2014 Kunlun Fight 2 and also made a glory debut at Glory-15 and lost  to Verlinden but three

months later Adesanya got his revenge at Glory of Heros 3. He even participated in King in the Ring Cruiserweights II tournament and took  home the gold, what a great bounce back. After defeating the former UFC Champ Silva, his  next fight was for the interim middleweight belt. He faced Kelvin Gastelum in the Championship in  2019 and won by unanimous decision after 5 rounds. It was a back and forth match  and the audience was excited. This earned him the Perfromance of the Night award  and was

regarded as the best fight ofs the year and the MMA media were in a frenzy about it for  months. His next opponent was Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 and again he won by knockout getting  him his fourth Performance of the night award. He seemed to be on his way up and the fights  were just going to get tougher from here. He had to face Yoel Romero in UFC 248. Romero is a  three-time UFC title challenger and Adesanya still came out on the top. However, for all the hype  the previous matches had, th

is seemed to fall short of the action and adrenaline, and fans were  quick to point this out. There was no significant offense and at no point were fans oohing and  aahing. As boring as the fight was to watch, his mindset was strong and confident, he  kept to his gameplan and got the W. The next title defense was epic. It  was against Paulo Costa at UFC 253 and both had a history of being unbeaten till  that date. This was a ground-breaking match as there was a lot of bad blood and trash talking

  back and forth. And with all this, Adesanya came out on top with flying colours, he chopped down  Costa with deadly leg kicks before ending him with vicious ground and pound. The champ looked  great and executed his gameplan to perfection He had a lot of time in the sun  and blazed strongly. However, when he faced Jan Blachowicz in  2021 for Light Heavyweight UFC, he lost. This was the first time he was defeated  in his MMA career. He did go up a weightclass and the undersized Adesanya had a t

ough time  with the bigger Blachowicz in the later rounds. Jan played a great game with taking Adesanya  down and staying on top of him in a dominant position. Do you think the stylebender has  what it takes to bounce back even stronger? Adesanya started his professional  boxing career in November 2014 against the two-time Australian champion Daniel Ammann. The event was so popular because of the appearance of Shane Cameron and Kali Meehan at the North  Shore Events Centre in Auckland, New Zeal

and. He suffered a controversial loss via unanimous  decision after he looked to have outscored Ammann in the quarter-finals. This miffed fans  a lot and this fight has many mixed reviews. This didn’t stop Adesanya. On March 8 2015 he  entered the Super 8 boxing tournament held in New Zealand. This was the second cruiserweight  series where the winner was going to get $25,000 NZD and a new car. In the first round of  the tournament he won against fellow New Zealander Asher Derbyshire by KO. In t

he second fight  of the tournament, Adesanya won by a majority decision against Lance Bryant. In the tournament  final, he faced off against Brian Minto where he won the tournament via split decision. He's  got the temperament of a champion for sure. This is Israel Adesanya and he's unstoppable.  Having to have 3 fights in a night will strengthen any fighter's mind. Adesanya stayed  focused and always kept his eye on the prize. Adesanya is a man with many talents! Before  taking up fighting, Ade

sanya regularly used to compete in dance competitions across New  Zealand. He showcased his passion for dance in a choreographed walkout at UFC 243 which was never  heard of before. He is a hardcore fan of anime too and it is his dream to start an anime production  company after retiring from fighting. His nickname "The Last Stylebender" is a reference to  Avatar: The Last Airbender, an anime-influenced cartoon series. He loves the show so much that  Adesanya has the image of one of the show's m

ain characters, Toph Beifong, tattooed on his forearm.  This must be a cool side to have. Having a side passion is important because it doesn't let you  forget who you are or what your goals are. He won the UFC Middleweight Championships and has  maintained two successful title defenses and he's won the interim UFC Middleweight Championship.  Don't forget the five Performance of the Night awards. He's got the Fight of the Night. And he's  won the award for Most Knockdowns in a UFC Title Fight. H

e was the AFC Middleweight Champion  and also won Fighter of the year in 2019. The wrestling observer also crowned him most  outstanding fighter of the year in 2019 and 2020. What a stud! Raw talent can only take you so  far, all these accolades and accomplishments are a testament to how strong minded and  strong willed this champion truly is. He's still got much more potential and we can’t  wait to see what the future holds for him. He's got the gravitas of a champion and we think  he's got the

mindset and determination for it. We’re looking to see him in winning  shape with his next bounce back fight! So that was all about Israel Adesanya,  what do you think about him? Does he have the mental toughness to bounce  back from the loss to Blachowicz? Will this be his downfall? Let us know in  the comments below. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe for more MMA content,  and we'll see you in the next video! Bye!