UFC 287 was not just any other fight for Israel Adesanya. He overcame more than his arch rival Alex Pereira in this fight. It seemed like all the odds were against ‘Izzy’ that day. ‘The Last Stylebender’ defeated his age old opponent with a vicious right in the second round but do you know how much pain he was in while doing it?

Adesanya recently revealed that he suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear one week before defeating Pereira to regain the UFC middleweight championship. He opened up about his determined mentality before the fight, despite knowing that he had a severe injury. While speaking at Our Yeah podcast he said, “I think two weeks or 10 days before the fight I did my right MCL through training so that sucked. And I was like,e oh, fu — not this again, and everyone was stressing, my brother was stressing.” 

The two-time middleweight champ added, “And then I was like, you know what? I’m not pulling out. I’m not leaving. So I knew what I wanted to get done. And again he beat me in MSG, you know the biggest spectacle in the world, so I was like, you know what, let’s run it back.”

He was adamant that he would not let ‘Poatan’ beat him four times. ‘Izzy’ said, “And I just knew that you can beat me once, you beat me twice, what you can maybe beat me three times. But four times? Fu— I might have to retire after that. So I was like hell no, and I tapped into that. Into the spirit of that one. Not four times, bro.”

He lost to Pereira in all three of their encounters before across MMA and kickboxing, twice by KO. However, UFC 287 was different. Adesanya manoeuvred Pereira towards the cage wall and dropped him with counter punches in Round 2.

Now that ‘Izzy’ has tasted both glory and defeat, similar to what Pereira faced, they seem to have become friends. There have been many instances where they have interacted with each other and sat together during UFC events. Apart from this, the Nigerian Kiwi fighter also seems to be at peace even after losing three fights back to back.

Israel Adesanya has no bitterness despite three losses

‘Izzy’ started having a hard time ever since he lost at UFC 293 against Sean Strickland. He lost his title that day, and from then on, he kept losing once at UFC 305 and then at UFC Saudi Arabia 2025. What did this three-fight losing streak leave him bitter and without motivation? Absolutely not. 

He is still determined to come back and fight and reminded the UFC brass as well about the same. Meanwhile, he is continuing to train with the best MMA coaches. In an interview with ESPN MMA, ‘Suga’s’ coach Tim Welch detailed his sparring practice with ‘Izzy’. The veteran  coach revealed  that Adesanya did not feel any ounce of stress or pressure since he has already achieved the highest point in his career. 

He said on his YouTube channel, “I didn’t know what to expect with Izzy. I have seen him a couple of times in fight weeks and like just say him, but you never know what people are dealing with in fight weeks. They’re cutting weight. I didn’t know about him. But he came and hung out with us, and it was crazy just how humble the dude was. How humble he was and how just nice of a dude he was. And like you’d think, he would kind of be bitter, he is coming off three losses, he may be bitter or just bad mood, but he wasn’t. He just seemed so at peace.”

What do you think about his determination? Even though he lost, he still wants to fight. Let us know in the comments below.