Most fighters hope their style gets labeled as something that resembles a killer like Jon Jones or strikes comparisons to the legend Anderson Silva, but not ‘Style Bender’ Israel Adesanya. While he may fit the body type and skill set, he’d rather you not disrespect them — or him for that matter — by constructing mental Venn diagrams of him and them. Going into his UFC debut tomorrow, he wants to showcase something completely new. He wants to showcase himself.
“Don’t insult [Jon Jones, Anderson Silva or Michael ‘Venom’ Page] or me by comparing us. I know what they’re trying to do, I know what they’re trying to say, but we’re different people. I watched Anderson Silva at UFC 90. I think it was my first pay-per-view I watched of him. Before that I watched some DVDs, but then UFC 90 I watched him live fight Patrick Cote. He used — probably in the first round — 10 different styles and then in the second round used telekinesis to dismantle [Cote’s] knee. I was like, who’s this skinny black guy?”
Israel Adesanya started kickboxing after watching -. His heroes include Avatar Aang and Naruto. He is versed in dancing and graphic design. Oh, and he might just merc you with a question mark kick. #UFC221 pic.twitter.com/6yCFhoveZd
— Kyle Johnson (@KidNobuhiko) February 8, 2018
“Everybody has this perception you have to be this Arnold Schwarzenegger lookin’ type dude to fight, then this skinny black guy comes and just runs through everyone. And that inspired me. I look up Anderson — still do, for years — but I’m not him. Definitely not. You’re dealing with a different beast. I’m a new age, new breed. I’ve got a different mindset as well. I learned a lot from those guys — Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, [Muhammad] Ali — from every walk of life, but when you see me in that cage, you’ll see that I’m a new breed.” — Israel Adesanya speaking to Submission Radio.
Israel Adesanya #UFC221 pic.twitter.com/9g7pIbSd7r
— Bestrafer7 (@Bestrafer7) February 5, 2018
The best way to move forward into the future is build on the past, but every now and then you have to break the mold. For the uninitiated, Israel Adesanya not only has to tools to break the mold, but spinning hook kick the thing into the third row. He’ll have a huge spotlight shined on him during UFC 221’s FS1 prelims against Rob Wilkinson. We’ll all be watching to see if he adds another highlight to his ever-growing reel.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/9/2018.