Israel Adesanya entered his UFC 287 main event against Alex Pereira with a Grade 1 MCL tear. However, Adesanya had no plans to withdraw from the bout. Instead, he drew inspiration from his previous successes despite being injured.
Adesanya was confident that he had all the tools needed to win the middleweight title he lost back in November 2022 by fifth-round TKO. The week before, he proved that he tore his MCL through a video footage of the incident. Adesanya had been vocal about wanting an immediate rematch and was determined to prove himself.
“I’ve been here before,” Adesanya said (via yt). “My UFC debut, three weeks out, I did my right ankle. I remember the next day, or that night, calling [his physiotherapist], and being like, ‘Yo, I need to see you tomorrow, ASAP.’ … He had to like, re-injure it, or cause pain to it —”
“I don’t know, it’s f****** magic or whatever, but I remember biting on a towel and sitting there in pain, screaming as he’s f****** massaging my hurt ankle where it’s not supposed to be massaged, because it hurt, but you’re supposed to. So, that’s one. [Derek] Brunson fight, I hurt my knee three weeks beforehand. I remember pops saying take five days off and just do nothing. It was really bad.
“I took five days off … three weeks before the biggest fight of my life at [Madison Square Garden]. I just took it off and then locked it in, locked it down. It’s all part of the story. This is meant to happen. No one wants anything like this to happen, but if you can’t change your circumstances, change your perspective,” Adesanya continued. “So I was like, ‘This has happened. “
“This is my perspective. This was meant to happen. I’ll overcome this.’ So the comeback of getting from then to the cage was already a big win for me, because after doing that — because that was really f****** bad — but I was like, if I can get through that and get to the cage”
“I can get through it. So it added to my confidence, added to my fortitude. I was like, they can’t break me.”
Adesanya recalled his past bouts, including his UFC debut and the Brunson event, where he entered injured and still came out victorious. Despite his injury, he locked in and prepared himself for the battle ahead. He had faith in his abilities and knew that he could overcome this obstacle.
Adesanya’s confidence and perseverance paid off as he ended up scoring a second-round KO of Alex Pereira to reclaim the middleweight title. It was a testament to his mental strength, determination, and skill set.
Although Adesanya is currently healing up his knee, he is set to return later this year when he faces the winner of Robert Whittaker vs. Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290 in July. He is looking forward to the challenge and is determined to come out victorious once again.