The Ultimate Fighting Championship oversees athletes from all corners of the world. You name it and chances are that the Las Vegas-based promotion has signed an athlete or two from that country. While some fighters choose to make one-time travel for their bouts, others contemplate making America their permanent home. New Zealand’s Israel Adesanya is one of those athletes to have almost gone that route.
In 2021, the former UFC middleweight champion declared that he will never compete in New Zealand, citing racism and mistreatment of MMA athletes on its shores. The news came in the midst of the COVID-19 era in September 2021 when Israel’s training partner Dan Hooker struggled to make it to his UFC 266 bout at the time. The pandemic led to extensive changes globally, and New Zealand was no different.
The said changes and regulations prevented several native fighters to train inside a confined bubble for their respective contests. This prevented the fighters from City Kickboxing training along with one another. The situation forced UFC lightweight Dan Hooker to ask Twitter for help in a last-minute push to secure an American visa.
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In response to this, ‘The Last Stylebender‘ issued a stinging response on his Instagram while announcing his move to America. Aside from this, he took to his YouTube channel and shared, “You will never see me fight in New Zealand ever again. That was one of my dreams, to headline a stadium in my backyard. That dream is dead in the water, that’s just the way I feel right now.”
It is worth mentioning that even after making it to the States, Hooker revealed that training didn’t become any easier on the soil. He kept receiving warnings from the NZ authorities for violating the country’s rules regarding the MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) system.
Israel Adesanya has roots based in Nigeria
Israel Adesanya was born and brought up in Lagos, Nigeria in 1989. His father served as an accountant while his brother worked as a nurse. Adesanya is a member belonging to the Yoruba ethnicity along with African roots. The Yoruba population famously lives in Nigeria and is considered to be one of the biggest African groups. Growing up, the 33-year-old spoke the Yoruba language, part of the Niger-Congo family
The 33-year-old fancied martial arts at a young age and joined a Taekwondo club in school. However, following an injury, his mother removed him from the team. By the age of 10, ‘Izzy’ moved to New Zealand based on his parent’s pursuit of finding better educational opportunities for their children. Fast forward to post-graduation, an 18-year-old Israel took up kickboxing lessons.
Before the UFC signed him, Israel showcased his skillset in various promotions. In search of the big break, the Nigerian-born threw himself to the wolves in regional Chinese combat circuits. Adesanya kept putting in work off the shores while improving his craft. Around this time, he had assembled a 75-5 record in kickboxing and a 5-1 record in boxing.
“They [Chinese fans] took me to heart you know and they started to call me the Black Dragon and I started winning,” said Adesanya, while recalling his unsung run in the backwaters of China. ‘The Last Stylebender’ used to compete in the city of Foshan and Anyang. The language barrier and hardships of living away from home didn’t stop ‘Izzy’ from working towards a better life for himself and his family.