Thread by @EricKurbyun

On the eve of #UFC271, I want to recount the story of a kid from Nigeria who is now the UFC middleweight champion and one MMA’s pound-for-pound best fighters

Let’s talk about Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya

THREAD 🧵

Israel Mobolaji Temitayo Odunayo Oluwafemi Owolabi Adesanya was born on July 22, 1989 in Lagos, Nigeria to Oluwafemi and Taiwo Adesanya

He’s the eldest of five kids

Izzy and his family lived in Lagos for ~9 years

During this time, he made his first discovery of martial arts, enrolling in an after-school Taekwondo program at 8 years old

But that didn’t last long

Izzy was a little rowdy practicing his new martial art skills

“I was kicking everything in the house and one time I did a stupid backflip off the couch and broke my arm. I got into a lot of trouble for that”

Trouble = mom taking him out of Taekwondo

After settling in Ghana for 10 months, Izzy and his family landed in Rotorua, New Zealand

He was the only Black student at Rotorua Boys’ High School, where he was constantly bullied

“That’s when my search for fighting came through.”

At 18, Izzy went to university for computer design after graduating high school

This was the path his parents envisioned for him

But the movie — yes, a movie — Ong-Bak starring Tony Jaa inspired Adesanya to start training in Muay Thai

2 years later, Izzy left his university studies to pursue a kickboxing career full time

He moved to Auckland, New Zealand and met one of the most important people in his journey to becoming champion

Eugene Bareman

He also happened to keep good company at City Kickboxing with future UFC stars Dan Hooker, Kai Kara-France and Alexander Volkanovski

Under Bareman’s tutelage at City Kickboxing, Izzy racked up a 32-0 amateur record

This kickboxing thing was working

So, inspired by his teammate Blood Diamond, he decided to pursue it further by moving to China and fighting in the Wu Lin Feng promotion

Izzy has said “Those days made me the man I am today”

He often fought bigger and more experienced opponents but knew he had to just keep building up experience

And it wasn’t all fighting during this time: He also held down a daytime job doing data entry to make ends meet

Time in China started paying off — he stacked up wins and earned his first nickname “Black Dragon”

Kickboxing was his main trade, no doubt

But he also started learning MMA and jiu-jitsu…

Izzy eventually made his way back to Auckland and went on an impressive run in pro kickboxing:

• 75-5 record

• 2016 GLORY Middleweight Contender Winner

• WKBF New Zealand Cruiserweight Champion

• WKBF New Zealand Light Heavyweight Champion

But during that time he also amassed a 9-0 MMA record and the UFC came calling in 2015

However, Izzy wanted more experience and added Australian Fighting Championship and Hex Fight Series middleweight titles to his resume in 2017

NOW it was time for the UFC

Adesanya signed a 4-fight deal and made his UFC debut against Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia in 2018

He instantly made his mark with a second round TKO, earning a Performance of the Night Bonus

After his debut, Adesanya began his meteoric UFC rise, earning hard-fought wins over Marvin Vettori and Brad Tavares (which earned him another POTN bonus)

But his real coming-out party came against Derek Brunson at UFC 230 with a 1st round TKO and yet another POTN bonus

And we can’t forget the memorable slugfest he put on with UFC middleweight legend Anderson Silva — which garnered Fight of the Night honors at UFC 234 in Melbourne

With all the momentum behind him, The Last Stylebender earned an interim title opportunity against Kelvin Gastelum

And well, let’s just say they put on a great show by having one of the best fights in UFC history

It was time to unify the titles and Robert Whittaker figured to be Adesanya’s biggest test

But he ended up making it look easy with a masterful 2nd-round knockout

The anime-loving kid who was bullied in high school finally became undisputed champion 👑

While his fight against Yoel Romero left fans with more to be desired, Adesanya quickly silenced the critics with a masterclass against Paulo Costa and…

a memorable celebration 😂

Izzy then went up to 205 to achieve UFC champ-champ status against Jan Blachowicz

While he ultimately failed, the loss didn’t shake him

He got back to business as usual by cruising to a decision win in a rematch against Marvin Vettori

Now, a rematch with Robert Whittaker is in front of The Last Stylebender at #UFC271

And tomorrow, he’ll enter the octagon as one the highest-paid athletes in UFC history and a surefire future hall of famer

We’re witness to a legend in the making 🐐

Did you enjoy this thread? If so:

1) Follow me @EricKurbyun — I tweet stories like this and the latest on combat sports business

2) Subscribe to The Prize of Fight, my free weekly newsletter that has detailed breakdowns on combat sports business news

theprizeoffight.substack.com

Sources

nzherald.co.nz/sport/mma-isra…

glorykickboxing.com/fighters/israe…

sportingnews.com/au/mma/news/uf…

amp.scmp.com/sport/martial-…

mediareferee.com/2021/06/30/ufc…

fansided.com/2019/02/08/why…