"Oh sh*t! You have to keep your composure" - Israel Adesanya discusses "dizzy bat game" drill used in gym to recover when "rocked" during fights
Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya recently revealed how he and his team practice a different version of the 'dizzy bat' game in their gym.
'Dizzy bat' is a game where an individual puts one end of the baseball bat on the ground and places their forehead on the other end. The person then spins around the bat multiple times and then starts to run.
Adesanya recently made an appearance on Theo Von's This Past Weekend' podcast. During the episode, 'The Last Stylebender' shared that they performed a gym drill involving the 'dizzy bat' game. Instead of running, a person had to hit the pads after doing multiple spins around the bat.
The New Zealander revealed that the activity was done to prepare an athlete for a possible scenario where they might get "rocked" in a fight:
"In my gym, we have this drill, that we haven't done in a while actually, but the dizzy bat game, and then you do it 10 times, then you get up and you have to hit the pads. Just in case, you never know in a fight where you might get rocked and you have to keep your composure... I might bring it back for some fun. Actually, I might do it for some content. That'd be a good idea."
Check out Israel Adesanya's comments from the 7:45 mark below:
What happened in Israel Adesanya's last UFC outing?
Israel Adesanya was last seen in action at UFC 293 in September 2023. 'The Last Stylebender' took on Sean Strickland for the middleweight throne.
Strickland caught Adesanya by surprise in the first round as he knocked him down and proceeded to land a barrage of punches. Adesanya managed to survive the storm and made it to the end of the frame.
But 'Tarzan' continued to get the better of his opponent as the fight went the 25-minute distance. In the end, Strickland was declared the new middleweight king via unanimous decision.
With the victory, Strickland became only the second UFC fighter to defeat Adesanya at 185 pounds. He also won a "Performance of the Night' award for the victory and took home an additional sum of $50,000.