No More ‘Freestyle’ Training For Optimized ‘Stylebender’

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Adesanya has taken his time away from fighting to completely overhaul his workout and nutrition processes. Israel Adesanya is completely overhauling how he trains in prepar…


UFC 293 Open Workouts
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Adesanya has taken his time away from fighting to completely overhaul his workout and nutrition processes.

Israel Adesanya is completely overhauling how he trains in preparation for his comeback later this year.

Adesanya decided to take some time off and regroup after a tough 2023 that saw him regain his middleweight title against Alex Pereira and then lose it again to Sean Strickland. The move sounds like a good idea, because in a new video “The Last Stylebender reveals he wasn’t really optimizing his training and nutrition like a champion should.

“I’m putting in work,” Adesanya declared. “I just wanna optimize myself a lot better than I was compared to how I used to live as an athlete. It’s not even close to how I’m living as an athlete now.”

Izzy revealed that he was going into training on an empty stomach and sometimes wouldn’t eat until late in the day. He also described his training regiment as ‘freestyle.’ Now he’s being much more methodical about everything.

“It wasn’t really bothering me and I was able to get away with it,” he admitted. “So I was still performing at peak and better than everyone else. So if it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it. It’s just now, I’m about to be 35 next month. And I realize father time wins, you can’t beat father time. So you have to optimize yourself. And yeah, I have been doing that now.”

“Before it was kinda like a little bit freestyle on my end. I would just be training with the lads, so I’m still kinda in shape. Even if I f—ed off somewhere and I came back and I wasn’t in shape, it wouldn’t take me too long to get in shape. But I’d rather be really diligent with the way I prepare for these fights because, yeah, you wanna close the show nicely. I like I’ve already said, I’m past the halfway point.”

“So the next few years, I just wanna close the show nicely,” he concluded. “We’re doing just that so far.”

Now all we need is a confirmed return date.

“How excited am I to get back in the Octagon? I’m excited, I’m excited. It’s been a year, almost a year, like 11 months by the time I get back in the octagon. But, people always like, you know, I hope you get your belt back. Like, I have belts. I don’t need any more belts. I’m coming for heads. That’s what I wanna do.

September 2023 was his last fight. Eleven months from then is August. August is UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. It’s all lining up for “The Last Stylebender.”