Made in China: how UFC champ Israel Adesanya was forged in the backblocks of the Middle Kingdom

When freshly minted middleweight champion Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya (18-0) first emerged on the UFC stage in Perth, Australia, less than two years ago, it looked like he’d been at this game all his life.

Turned out he pretty much had.

“I’ve been working towards this forever,” the Nigerian-born Kiwi said at the time. “I’m ready for anything.”

Adesanya was there for his debut on the biggest stage the sport of MMA offers. But the hard yards had been put in for more than a decade, across a fight career that included a 5-1 run as a boxer and a 75-5 record in kick-boxing that had seen Adesanya pack up and leave home and throw himself into the wilds of the domestic Chinese circuits.

“Those days made me the man I am today,” he said then, and has repeated since. “I was out there in China, making my way. I was alone and I just said to them, ‘let me fight, I’ll fight whoever you want’.”

In the beginning, things didn’t look so good. At 21 years of age, Adesanya found life tough living far from home, not speaking the language and being pitted against far more experienced – and often much bigger – fighters. He went on a 5-0 run before first tasting defeat.

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But Adesanya kept learning, and he kept dreaming of brighter days as he fought in Foshan and Anyang and, later, as far afield as Istanbul and Sao Paulo.

“It took me a while to adapt, you know,” he recalled. “But I settled in and I won the fans over. They took me to heart you know and they started to call me the Black Dragon and I started winning.

“I just kept getting in there, bam, week after week, month after month. You learn how to fight, how to get hit, how to be disappointed and how to bounce back.”

Adesanya has spent his fight career bouncing between codes, from boxing to kick-boxing to MMA and all ports in between.

When he entered the UFC he’d already been through what for many fighters would be a lifetime in the ring. Once MMA became his full-time passion – still only about two years ago – he’d been there, done that.

Adesanya had taken on all comers, honing his skills, checking and balancing his fight game so that by the time the UFC came calling – and he was never in any doubt that they would – he could turn the organisation on its head.

On debut, back then in Perth, Adesanya knew he had to make a statement. It wasn’t long, that day, before Adesanya was staking his claim, dispatching Rob “Razor” Wilkinson with ease.

He then pretended to mark his territory inside the Octagon, much like one of his beloved dogs might do back home in Auckland, where Adesanya is part of a growing generation of champions emerging from City Kick-boxing.

Afterwards, Adesanya was still buzzing and the media pack was trying to find out just who was this man and where had he come from.

“I’m finally home,” said Adesanya, and in the months and in the fights leading up to Sunday’s title clash with Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker (20-5), the Kiwi had ticked every box as he sought to convince the world he was exactly that.

Then across eight and a half minutes of action, he stamped his class all over the division once again, and he wrote himself into history.

Funny thing is, in the lead up to Sunday’s clash with Whittaker, the naysayers were out in force. But they hadn’t really done their research had they?

Adesanya doesn’t like to be hit, they said.

He’s been through wars.

Adesanya can’t knock people out, was the call.

Ask Whittaker.

After Adesanya had gone 4-0 in the UFC, the penny really dropped with the organisation, and they featured the fighter as a guest on the sidelines of UFC Fight Night 142 in Adelaide last December, giving him a platform to reflect and to predict.

First thing he said was he knew where he was going – straight to the top. Then he thought about where he had been.

“I heard a lot of stuff after my first fight about being a rookie and all that,” said Adesanya. “What a lot of people overseas never realised is that I’ve been doing this a very long time.

“I have been through everything, in China, everywhere. I’ve prepared myself for anything and everything. I’ve even worked out how I am going to react when I do lose, when I have to deal with disappointment. I am prepared for anything. This is my time.”

Once again, how right Adesanya has proved to be.