Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya is the new unified Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion after defeating number three-ranked 2000 Olympic wrestling silver medallist, Yoel Romero. The fight took place on March 7, 2020 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, USA and took the Nigerian-born New Zealanders undefeated UFC record to 19.
The five-round fight was criticised for lacking action due to the few shots both Adesanya and Romero took at each other during the fight. But on the judges scorecard Adesanya just edged the 42-year-old Romero to win the fight, and defend his Middleweight Championship for the first time, via split decision.
Adesanya was born in Lagos and attended Chrisland School in Ikeja, Lagos before moving to Ghana and then New Zealand with his parents at the age of 10. As a high school student in New Zealand, Adesanya was bullied a lot and he credits this experience for his interest in Martial Arts.
Also known as “Izzy”, Adesanya started training in kickboxing at the age of 18 after being inspired by the Muay Thai film Ong Bak. Muay Thai, or literally Thai boxing, is a combat sport of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. What followed was an incredible amateur run in which he won 32 fights and lost none. At the age of 21, he moved to Auckland, New Zealand and started training with Eugene Bareman at the City Boxing Gym alongside other established Mixed Martials Arts (MMA) fighters such as Dan Hooker, Kai Kara-France and Alexander Volkanovski.
After making his professional MMA debut in 2012, Adesanya went on a five-year 11-fight win streak before signing with the UFC in December 2017. In those five years Adesanya also had 80 kickboxing fights, 75 of which he won and a further 29 of those wins coming by knockout.
“A lot of people don’t accept it,” he told UFC.com. “They had it, or they have it, but they shy away from the light, but when you know, you know. You stand there, and you just take it. You soak up the light. My melanin is supposed to soak up the light, so I embrace the spotlight.”
Since his first fight against Rob Wilkinson on 11 February 2018, at UFC 221 (which he won by knockout in the second round), Adesanya has gone on to win against Marvin Vettori (split decision), Brad Tavares (unanimous decision), Derek Brunson (technical knockout in round one), future hall of famer Anderson Silva (unanimous decision), Kelvin Gastellum (unanimous decision), and former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (second round knockout).
By October 6, 2019, exactly 19 months and seven days after his UFC debut fight, Adesanya had become interim UFC Middleweight Champion. He had also received the Fight of the Night bonus twice and Performance of the Night four times. He also has a record of the most knockdowns (four) in a title fight.
Israel Adesanya’s latest win over Yoel Romero makes him the unified, undisputed UFC Middleweight Champion and what a run it has been. “I looked in his eyes, and I was like, ‘That’s just another dude,’” Adesanya said. “He’s a vet. He’s crafty. He’s built for battle. That’s something different about him. He’s built for battle. But he’s human. He bleeds, and I’ll make him bleed.”
Will Adesanya be able to successfully defend his title in the future? His coach, Eugene Bareman, certainly thinks so. “We got to hold on it,” Bareman said. “Now, we’re drawing different kinds of imagery or different kinds of comparisons. Building a castle wall and defending it – it’s ours, and no one is coming in to take it.”