"They were always there" - Israel Adesanya on how his parents supported his MMA dream
Despite his parents' initial reservations about a career in combat sports, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has credited them for their support.
On the latest episode of Adesanya's UFC 276 Fight Camp video log series, 'The Last Stylebender' got emotional about their role in his success. After taking a few minutes to gather himself, Israel Adesanya shared his parents' early perspective of his career, saying:
"As it's sometimes said, either you are an accountant, a lawyer, a doctor, or a failure. So when I told my parents I'm going to go be a fighter, I'm going to go be this, (they) obviously, as nigerian parents, were like, 'What?'"
Despite attempting to initially try to talk Israel out of fighting, Israel Adesanya shared how they never stopped supporting him.
"But no matter what, even though they couldn't see my vision, even though they couldn't see what I was trying to do, my parents still supported me, they still made sure I was never left out in the cold... They were always there. Before any of this, before all of the success, they were always there."
Their unwavering support has certainly paid dividends as Adesanya looks to defend his championship belt yet again, on July 2.
Watch the full UFC 276 Fight Camp Ep. 3 below:
Israel Adesanya: UFC 276 "huge" for Oceania region
On fellow champion and City Kickboxing teammate Alexander Volkanovski's YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya spoke on the importance of UFC 276 for his region. In a video titled Cooking With Champions, Adesanya, while talking about how the main and co-main event champions are from Oceania, stated:
"This is huge for the Oceania region. Dude this is like ... years, 50 years down the line we're going to be talking about this."
Adesanya is right to praise his region for their simultaneous hold on two championship belts. However, that hold may be lost or in danger after UFC 276 on July 2.
Volkanovski is facing Holloway for their trilogy bout, while Adesanya takes on a new challenger in Jared Cannonier. Further down the card, Sean Strickland faces Alex Pereira, the man who retired Adesanya from kickboxing. If Adesanya defends and Pereria wins, he will most likely be in line to challenge Israel next.
All three of those bouts are very threatening for the current Oceanic champion's reign. Many believe Max Holloway has already defeated Volkanovski at least once, maybe twice.
Meanwhile, Cannonier is no push-over, holding wins over Gastelum, Cannonier, Brunson, and Silva. It will be interesting to hear Israel Adesanya expand on these thoughts during the press conference, and even more interesting to see if the belts remain in that region after July 2nd.
Watch the full episode of Cooking With Champions Below: