Adesanya is drawing big crowds wherever he goes in Nigeria, Africa even without a UFC belt around his waist.
Israel Adesanya didn’t get to bring his former UFC middleweight belt back to Nigeria, but the fans there don’t seem to mind.
Adesanya dropped a fourth round submission loss to Dricus Du Plessis in the main event of UFC 305 on August 17th, ending his title contention for the immediate future. Despite the loss, he didn’t cancel plans to return home to his home country of Nigeria, where we’re seeing lots of great social media posts featuring the African UFC star.
There’s one video from Lagos where “The Last Stylebender” visited a grocery store and is crowded by fans who followed him through the building. Another shows Izzy and his family singing at a church service. Both times, the area was reportedly swamped with fans the moment people found out Adesanya was nearby.
The people of Nigeria love Israel Adesanya
He’s in Lagos right now and can’t go anywhere without shuttin the place down pic.twitter.com/6toqBkYF4m— DJ MurkCity (@myrksitymma) August 25, 2024
Israel Adesanya & his family attended church in Nigeria this morning & afterwards chaos erupted when the locals realized he was in town
I saw @Super_Sodiq also touched down in Lagos
I wonder if him & @stylebender will link up while they’re home
: Adesanya.david | IG pic.twitter.com/Khg13kFH76— DJ MurkCity (@myrksitymma) August 25, 2024
He also met up with fellow UFC fighter Sodiq Yusuff to attend a local boxing event. The crowd gave Adesanya a big round of approval as he talked up the up and coming talent from the region.
“Energy never dies, it can be passed on and amplified,” Adesanya wrote in a post featuring pictures and videos from the event. “Bless the future, bless my people, their flame inspired me!”
Israel Adesanya & Sodiq Yusuff link up together in Nigeria for a local boxing event
Copied directly from @Super_Sodiq IG
[Much respect to @stylebender for coming through and touching the people. This meant a lot for the community. Almost shed a tear when I heard a lady in… pic.twitter.com/cHaAxKkhHn— DJ MurkCity (@myrksitymma) August 25, 2024
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Energy never dies, it can be passed on and amplified ??? .Bless the future, bless my people, their flame inspired me! pic.twitter.com/AmK2KBc1A5— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) August 25, 2024
He also shared some new information regarding his fight against Du Plessis, seeming to confirm something his former rival Alex Pereira guessed at in a recent video.
“We don’t talk about injuries, we don’t talk about problems,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel. “We are there, we want to fight, we want to win. No excuses. Maybe Adesanya had an injury, I don’t know. You could see he kicked very little. That inside leg kick of Adesanya is very good … he didn’t continue to do it … he is only throwing hands.”
“It’s weird how this guy knows me,” Adesanya wrote above a retweet of Pereira’s comments. “It’s like we’ve spent hours studying each other’s moves and fought multiple times or sumn’. I mean that.”
As of now there’s no hint as to what could be next for Israel Adesanya. Following the fight he confirmed he had no plans to retire, but also said he wasn’t planning on rushing back for another fight any time soon. But with his hometown crowd gassing him up so much, maybe we’ll hear something soon about the next time we can expect to see “The Last Stylebender” in the cage.