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UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is fantastic, both inside the cage and on the dance floor. He went to Nigeria following his hard-fought win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 and celebrated the success in signature fashion, setting the dance floor on fire with his incredible moves.
In May 2019, just one month after becoming the interim UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya shared a video on Twitter in which he entertains a small gathering of people, likely known to him, with his slick dance moves. Adesanya was in the groove and seemed to be enjoying the energetic reaction to his moves by the crowd.
Israel Adesanya has always been fond of dancing. He has always maintained that fighting and dancing are the two things he's most passionate about in life. During an interview with ESPN, The Last Stylebender explained how dancing impacted his journey of becoming a UFC Champion.
Adesanya revealed that dancing was initially the means to impress his classmates but it later became a form of self-expression which he incorporated into his fighting style.
“Dancers I feel, they have the best muscle memory on the planet, ’cause they have to drill drill drill. The motivation behind it was just expressions, self-expression. If you are authentically you and express yourself truly, no one can f*ck with you."
When Israel Adesanya broke the UFC's no-dancing walkout policy
Ahead of his title unification bout against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243, Adesanya wanted to make a grand entry by walking out to a choreographed dance routine. However, his ideas were scrapped by UFC president Dana White who said that the promotion doesn't entertain choreographed dance walk-ins and won't do so as long as he sits at the helm.
“A choreographed intro walk-ins, we do not do here. We will not do as long as I’m here. There’s not many scenarios where fight fans want to see men dancing, ever," White had said.
Well, Israel Adesanya finally managed to convince the boss about a choreographed dance walk out and brought the crowd to their feet with a stunning entrance at UFC 243.
“This fight, I was the real main event. It was my show, so I was like, I’m going to do this my way or no way. I knew he [White] would have liked it because it was sick as f*ck. I went out there, I hit my sh*t and it was legendary,” said Adesanya about his walkout and subsequent performance.
The Kiwi would go on to knock then defending champion Robert Whittaker out in the second round of their fight and win the middleweight title.
Israel Adesanya is expected to fight Jan Blachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight title in March of 2021 at UFC 259.
