Former two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has addressed his past association with China during his kickboxing career, candidly explaining the motivation behind representing the nation.
“China had a really hot, you know, kickboxing scene, and yeah I moved over there to be one of the guys they beat on. And eventually they realized ‘Oh. we can’t beat him let’s hire him.’ So, they put me on the team and then they gave me a story gave me a script it’s like kind of…kind of WWE type sh*t…but real fighting yeah…China because money! Moni…moni!” Adesanya explained in Q and A video.
The Nigerian-born New Zealand resident, who competed extensively in Chinese circuits, adopted the ring name ‘The Black Dragon’ and fully embraced the culture. He even participated in various promotional activities and advertisements, including some memorable commercial appearances.
Reflecting on these experiences, Adesanya shared a particularly notable moment: “yes i’m a chinese and the thing is like when it was happening i didn’t think at the time like anything of it… there was even one one time where like you know like my family here in china this and that right and i grabbed this random baby from the street and they told me like and they got the parents too.”
Now at 35 years old and with over 100 professional bouts across multiple disciplines, Adesanya maintains a philosophical perspective about his career trajectory. During a recent YouTube Q&A session, he expressed his current mindset: “Do I have a title shot in mind for the future? No — I’ll say this, when I got to the UFC, I never chased the belt. I expected it. I expected to be champion, I expected to get to this point that I wanted to get to because of the work I put in and the mindset, the belief, I knew with everything I did, I was going to get to it.”
The former champion added, “But after this fight [with Imavov] I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m not expecting anything. I’m not expecting to be the champion again.'” While he remains open to future opportunities, Adesanya appears content with his achievements in the sport and isn’t actively pursuing another title run.
