How UFC champ Israel Adesanya prepares for a fight: from meditation to posing with pizza, losing to Jan Blachowicz won’t get the Nigerian-born MMA fighter down

Mar 14 , 2021

UFC fighter Israel Adesanya doesn’t win by accident, you know. Photo: @stylebender/Instagram

The Last Stylebender may have lost his recent UFC 259 battle against Jan Blachowicz but he pledged to defend his middleweight champion belt soon

The Nigerian-born New Zealand fighter has a pretty tight daily routine, but on days where he lacks discipline head coach Eugene Bareman keeps him in line

He may have lost his bid to become a two-division champion at UFC 259, after failing to dethrone Polish light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, but Israel Adesanya certainly earned the respect of the fighting community. Blachowicz credited the Nigerian-born Kiwi MMA star as hitting harder than expected.

He still has his middleweight belt thought, which Adesanya pledged to defend soon, telling fans after the March 6 defeat that “we’re just stopping for gas. If you want to stay on, I promise I’ll make you proud.”

Here’s how he gets into the fight zone ahead of Octagon go-time. From fine-tuning his style to meditation, Adesanya is able to make waves for a reason.

He detaches from those around him

As the mixed martial artist gets ready for a fight, he says it feels like he is getting ready for war. In an interview with My Protein, he said that he has to get ready knowing that anything can happen and prepare for the unknown. In the week leading up to a big fight, Adesanya says he starts to detach from everyone around him and just focuses on the big fight.

Meditation is critical

Israel Adesanya practices meditation whenever he is able to, though admits he is ‘flawed’ and therefore doesn’t always do it daily. Photo: @stylebender/Instagram

Adesanya says that much of his fight prep is mental. In a video interview with My Protein, he explains how he wakes up every morning, presses snooze once and then heads to his window to meditate. In the same interview, the UFC star said that meditation helps set him up to win. He admits that he doesn’t do it daily, but says that when he does, it really makes a difference.

He taps into his skills as a fast learner