Israel Adesanya reveals that he tore his MCL just a few days before his UFC 287 title fight.
UFC 287 was a crowning moment for UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. He was coming off his first loss at middleweight in his professional MMA career and he suffered that loss to his rival. At UFC 287 “Stylebender” had his chance to show the world that he could beat Alex Pereira once and for all and that he was the true champion at 185 pounds. In the end, he was able to do all of that but now, weeks removed from the fight, he is detailing just how tough of a road it was.
In addition to being one of the most popular fights in the UFC, Adesanya also has a large YouTube following. He often gives his fans a glimpse into his training and his fight camps but there was a part of his last camp that he kept private, until now. Adesanya has revealed an injury that he suffered just days after his UFC 287 fight. He shared the video and detailed how he was able to overcome the injury on his channel.
Israel Adesanya feels that his knee injury gave him more confidence
In his latest video released on YouTube, Adesanya explains how he suffered a grade one tear of his MCL. He showed a film from one of his last sparring sessions where he was taken down by a training partner and bent his leg the wrong way. Watching it back it was clear that Adesanya knew he was injured but would not let it keep him from his fight. He explained how the injury gave him confidence in himself.
“I was just like it’s all part of the story this is meant to happen. I said ‘meant to’ but nobody ever whats something like that to happen. It was just if you can’t change your circumstance you change your perspective. So it was like right, this has happened, this is my perspective, this is meant to happen. I’ll overcome this, so the comeback of getting from then to the cage was already like a big win for me,” he said. “I was like, Yo, I beat that and that was really f–king bad. But after that, and I was like, if I can get through that and get to the cage, this fight, I can get through it. So it added to my confidence, it added to my fortitude and I was just like, they can’t break me.”
With that win behind him, Adesanya can begin to look forward, past Pereira. He does not have a clear next contender but has been going back and forth with Dricus Du Plessis. At the end of his video, he calls for Du Plessis to win his next fight against Robert Whittaker so the two may face off and end their argument about who is the best African fighter in the UFC.
