Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Israel Adesanya took his fathers’ advice and ditched the pink hair in the leadup to UFC 253.
Israel Adesanya dyed his hair pink in the weeks leading up to UFC 253, but ‘The Last Stylebender’ reverted back to his natural color at the last minute.
Adesanya, who TKO’d Paulo Costa in the UFC 253 main event, revealed that his father persuaded him to ditch the pink hair because it could have provided ‘Borrachinha’ with a visual aid on fight night.
“Shout out to my dad. He said I’m going to blind him,” Adesanya said at the post-fight press conference following his masterclass performance against Costa (h/t MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin). “I’m going to blind him with my jab and when he’s compromised with one eye, and if I take the other eye out, if he sees that pink hue, he’ll still know where my head is.
“He’ll know that’s where my head is and he’ll just aim for the pink hue. I was like you’re right. Like a good boy, I listened to my dad. He’s a smart man.”
Pink hair or not, the outcome likely would have been the same. Adesanya proved to be several notches above Costa in the striking department, counter striking his opponent with surgical precision before dropping and finishing the Brazilian with a barrage of ground-and-pound in the second round.
Adesanya is now a perfect 20-0 as a professional fighter and 2-0 as UFC middleweight champion. The Nigerian-New Zealander would like his next title defense to be against Jared Cannonier.