New Zealand’s Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya, entered his middleweight bout against Rob Wilkinson on an 11-fight winning streak. He made his UFC Octagon debut at UFC 221 on Saturday (Feb 10, 2018) and earned a victory via the second-round demolition of Rob Wilkinson at the Perth Arena in Australia.
The most impressive about Adesanya’s win was that it wasn’t one jaw-dropping strike that ended the bout – it was a nasty mix of techniques that had Rob Wilkinson looking for a way out as Adesanya piled up damage. Look out; he’s already drawing comparisons to Jon Jones and Anderson Silva. These may be premature, but Adesanya 28, the potential for greatness is undeniable.
After the fight, he sent the MMA community into a craze with his Octagon interview and had a lot of people comparing him to Conor McGregor.
”The Last Stylebender” himself didn’t hesitate to make similar associations.
”The pressure has been the same since the jump, since 2008 when I started fighting,” Adesanya said. “After my first fight people were like ‘Wow, look out for this guy’ and it’s been growing, following me. Pretty sure I had more hype than Conor [McGregor] before he jumped into the UFC. Now people know who I am and it’s time to work.”
Adesanya is a former kickboxer with a professional kickboxing record of 65-5-2 and made his MMA debut back in 2012. It appears he will be looking to keep the train rolling and stay active:
”Hey, in 2016 I fought over 20 times,” he told Submission Radio. “And not like gimme fights, the Chinese were trying to kill me so they were giving me killers. So yeah, I’m not new at this, I like staying active. I’m gonna have a week off just to chill, let my hair down. I’m going to go out on a boat here with my crew and get some things done. But everyone’s going to try and call me out now so I’ll leave it to you guys to fight over who wants to fight me next.”
”I’ve got a four fight contract, I’m going to get through that this year and then yeah, probably top 10 by next year. I see that happening. I’m in the UFC now, I’ve felt the buzz, deja-vu, same thing different day. Yeah, I want to be in the top 10 by next year but who knows, could be this year!”
Who would you want to see Israel Adesanya fight next?
