UFC 248: Israel Adesanya has ‘a few more fighters in my mind’ after he deals with Yoel Romero
- ‘I don’t want to share their names just yet,’ says the UFC middleweight champion
- ‘You have to take it one step at a time because if you miss a step you’ll fall a few steps back’
Israel Adesanya’s rise to the top of the UFC has been so quick – and so dramatic – that you’d think his head would still be spinning.
That’s simply not the case.
“I own this s***,” was Adesanya’s response, when asked by the Post how he was finding life as the UFC’s middleweight champion. “It’s just reps, like in the gym, and I just get better every single time.”
It was just two years ago that the now 30-year-old “Last Stylebender” first emerged in the UFC from New Zealand, and he started to carve his way to a title belt that was delivered last time out with a second-round knockout of Australia’s Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker (20-5) last October. That win took Adesanya’s record in the sport to a clean 18-0 and as he climbed through the rankings he had already started to talk about a legacy, both in the sport and beyond.
“It’s all gone according to plan,” Adesanya says. “There are ups and downs, smiles and frowns. That’s life. But you have to be able to go with the ebbs and flows. Since winning the title I’m 100 per cent better as a human being.
“I’ve tried to stay calm as a lot of things around me have blown up. You know there’s a lot of money, too, and I’m not mad about that. I think it’s important to just focus on yourself. For this fight I have just done what I have always done, which is be the best that I can be.”