Former UFC champion Israel Adesanya had a run-in with some members of the Chinese Triad. This was years ago when the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter was kickboxing in China.
Israel Adesanya Fighting in China
In the early 2010s, ‘The Last Stylebender’ was a key kickboxer in the Chinese-based kickboxing organization Wu Lin Feng, and also fought in China’s Glory of Heroes and Kunlun. This is where his rivalry began with Alex Pereira, the two had two bouts against one another in Glory of Heroes.
The Chinese Triad is an organized crime syndicate. In an interview with Bloody Elbow, Israel Adesnaya recalls one night while competing in China:
“I have a lot of my wildest memories in China. I was fighting on a show with my teammate, Mike ‘Blood Diamond’ Mathetha, and then, in the middle of the night, the promoter came into our hotel room and took us to go hang out with this triad dude and his entourage. That was a good, wild experience.”
MMA and the UFC
Having lost in GLORY Kickboxing and to ‘Poatan’ Pereira, Adesanya changed his priorities to MMA. The Nigerian-Kiwi athlete was able to put together a perfect 20-0 record and pick up a UFC world title, before earning his first loss against light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.
In total, Israel Adesanya would defend his middleweight crown in five bouts before losing it to Pereira. Adesanya would later avenge that loss recapturing the throne, and then losing it to Sean Strickland. The US-born Strickland lost the title to Dricus du Plessis who Israel Adesanya will next face. He is looking to recapture his UFC middleweight title live from Australia at UFC 305 on August 18.
On this UFC 305 match, he said:
“That’s really all I care about. Everything else is stupid. This is silly. The fight’s already sold but we have to go on this media sht. We have to do another press conference. I guess that’s to hype the fight up even more. Then the faceoff. Then the weigh-ins, then the faceoff. It’s like, it’s all fcking stupid to me. I want to go in there and beat this c*nt up. So that’s the exciting thing for me, and I’m going to do that. But again, it’s just patience.“