Watch: UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya breaks the record on a punching machine
Israel Adesanya has never been a huge advocate of hard hitting. Instead, he's always insisted on technical accuracy. However, he is clearly one of the best strikers in the UFC right now.
A recent video that has surfaced of 'The Last Stylebender' breaking the record on a punching machine shows that Israel Adesanya can definitely hit hard if he wants to. The clip shows him surpassing the highest score on the machine of 962.1 and raising the bar to 964.4.
Watch the video below:
Testing their power out on punching machines is something a lot of fighters do for fun and there are several videos online of different UFC athletes doing it,
Here we have UFC megastar Conor McGregor breaking the record on a machine by scoring 932.
A week ago, McGregor's close friend Dillon Danis posted on social media bragging about his power after scoring 864 on a machine. Michael Bisping took this opportunity to make fun of Danis in response.
Francis Ngannou, who is undoubtedly one of the hardest hitters in the history of the UFC, tested out his power on the punching machine at the Tyson Ranch resort, which is owned by Mike Tyson. Ngannou scored 804 on the machine.
In 2017, Ngannou paid a visit to the UFC Performance Institute and created the world record for the hardest punch ever measured.
The Cameroonian recorded a punch of 129,161 units, which surpassed the previous record held by kickboxer Tyrone Spong.
Here is a comparison video between the punching power of 'The Predator' and fellow heavyweight Derrick Lewis, who he might defend his UFC heavyweight belt against in the future.
Here is a video compilation of UFC fighters competing against each other on the punching machine.
Israel Adesanya has his own punching power theory
As mentioned before, Israel Adesanya is a staunch believer in prowess over power.
Ahead of his UFC 253 fight against Paulo Costa, Adesanya was asked to comment on his opponent's impressive punching power. 'Borrachinha' had nine knockout wins in his 13 finishes at the time.
However, the UFC middleweight king theorized that, after a point, no amount of power can be felt by the fighter on the receiving end due to high adrenaline.
"Put it this way. If Paulo Costa is an 8 and Derek Brunson is a 6, you only need a 3/4 to KO someone and you can’t feel the rest anyway due to adrenaline. So, it’s the same," Adesanya told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
Before that, following his UFC 230 win over Brunson, Israel Adesanya claimed that he used only 40 percent of his power to knockout his opponent.
"It’s not about hitting hard and about who can hit. I can hit hard, trust me. Those shots that I landed, I was just going at like 40 percent," Israel Adesanya said.