Rashad Evans wanted to recruit Israel Adesanya for The Ultimate Fighter

Rashad Evans (left), Israel Adesanya (right) [Photo credit: @sugarashadevans on Instagram]

Israel Adesanya's arrival at the UFC could have been very different had he accepted Rashad Evans' offer. The UFC middleweight champion revealed that 'Suga' tried to recruit him to appear on a season of The Ultimate Fighter.

'The Last Stylebender' was recently a guest on the UFC's YouTube series "Up In the 'Gram." Israel Adesanya gave his fans a blast from the past as he told some interesting backstories about some of his old posts on Instagram.

Adesanya shared an interesting tidbit about a post he made on September 22, 2014. He made a video thanking Evans, who Israel Adesanya said has been supporting him since his minor league days. Adesanya then revealed that Evans encouraged him to take his talents to the TUF house.

"He tried to recruit me for the TUF season that time. I remember that," Israel Adesanya recalled. "So he tried to say, 'You need to come... we're doing The Ultimate Fighter. Welterweights. Can you make welterweight?' I was like, 'I don't think so, I can't.'"

Watch the full interview below:

Rashad Evans served as a coach for the tenth installment of the show. But Israel Adesanya was probably referring to a different season than the one Evans coached in since TUF 10 featured only heavyweights. Evans also kickstarted his UFC career by winning the second season of the popular show.

Israel Adesanya's next fight

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Israel Adesanya is gearing up for a title defense in the main event of the upcoming UFC 263. He will face number three-ranked middleweight Marvin Vettori in a rematch of their first encounter at UFC on Fox 29 three years ago.

The first time Adesanya and Vettori met in the octagon, 'The Last Stylebender' came away with a narrow split decision win. However, he vowed to do things differently in the second fight and shut the door on Vettori once and for all.

"This time I'm gonna finish the job," Adesanya told Vettori during a joint interview. "Last time you had hope. You had hope because one dumb judge gave you that f***ing fight when everyone else knows that you lost that fight."

Watch the heated exchange between UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya and title challenger Marvin Vettori:

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