Israel Adesanya shares chilling story of promise "psychopath" Dan Hooker made to himself before facing a submission specialist - "Dan made an agreement with himself to just let it go"

Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker have spent several years as teammates and training partners. The former middleweight champion recently revealed how Hooker's performance at UFC 281 reminded him of the No.12-ranked lightweight's UFC debut.

Speaking on the FLAGRANT podcast, Adesanya stated:

"When I was watching [Hooker] fight, I was like, 'This reminds me of Dan's debut because Dan fought this guy who's a leg lock specialist. Same thing - ankle locks everyone in the UFC and Dan fought him. The guy took his legs and Dan's bendy, he's bendy as f**k, he's so flexible and he was able to beat the guy and f**k him up from that position and eventually finished him."

Adesanya continued:

"Dan said to himself at his UFC debut in Auckland, if this guy gets to my legs, and he cranks - Dan made an agreement with himself to just let it go like okay, he's gonna break my legs, cool. He's a psycho."

Hooker was able to defeat Claudio Puelles, another leg lock specialist, at UFC 281. Puelles targeted Hooker's legs the entire fight before being finished with a second-round body kick.

Watch Israel Adesanya discuss Dan Hooker's UFC debut performance below (starting at the 15:55 mark):

Israel Adesanya praises Alex Pereira's corner

Israel Adesanya was only a few minutes away from his sixth title defense at UFC 281. Instead, Alex Pereira was able to pick up a fifth-round finish following a motivational speech from his corner. Adesanya recently shared his thoughts on the same.

#UFC281 Official Scorecard: @AlexPereiraUFC vs Israel Adesanya

See every scorecard here ➡️ ufc.ac/3EmxiUu https://t.co/fczwLCnvnf

Speaking on the FLAGRANT podcast, Adesanya stated:

"His corner just gave him this f**king motivating speech, but I was like 'Okay, you have to be in this, you have to focus.'"

Prior to the fifth round, Pereira's corner made it clear that he needed a knockout to win the fight as he was likely quite behind on the scorecards. 'Poatan' was able to do just that, stunning Adesanya to become the middleweight champion.

Watch the speech from Alex Pereira's corner below:

Pereira's corner two minutes before he became a UFC champion 🗣️ #UFC281 https://t.co/BV7gEgBP9n

Watch Israel Adesanya discuss Alex Pereira's corner below (starting at the 11:10 mark):