Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero UFC 248 Las Vegas middleweight fight: Champ opens up

Kiwi fighter Israel Adesanya has taken Las Vegas by storm this week, landing in the fight capital of the world for the first defence of his world middleweight title at Sunday’s UFC 248.

He has waxed lyrical about what he plans to do to his Cuban opponent Yoel Romero once they are inside the cage and the door is locked shut.

But in a quiet moment backstage with Daily Mail Australia, the 30-year-old revealed his thoughts had been running deeper than this one fight. Adesanya had been thinking about the role he is playing in taking the sport of mixed martial arts mainstream.

‘People keep talking about ”traditional sports” but that’s a stupid term,’ Adesanya said. 

Kiwi fighter Israel Adesanya will take on Yoel Romero in Las Vegas for the UFC 248 event

‘That’s a sort of racist term against our sport in way because it makes us seem like we’re on the fringe. But we are a traditional sport. People have been fighting forever. It’s in our DNA. It’s traditional and we have to carry on that tradition. I know fame is there now but I’m going to keep on being me and letting things come to me. I’m still introducing myself and this sport to the outside world.’

It’s been a remarkable rise to fame and growing fortune for the Nigerian-born fighter, who immigrated to New Zealand aged 10 as his accountant father sought a better life for his young family of five. There were racist taunts on the streets of Rotorua but a growing resolve within the young Adesanya that he could find strength, and direction in life, through martial arts.

First it was kick boxing, and tours to China where he would often face – and beat – far heavier and more seasoned opponents. Then Adesanya turned to mixed martial arts with the help of Auckland’s famed City Kickboxing Gym and so far in his career he’s won 18 fights straight, seven of those with the Las Vegas-based UFC, the biggest MMA promotion on the planet.

Last October Adesanya knocked out Kiwi-born Australian Robert ‘The Reaper’ Whittaker – in the second round – to claim the UFC’s hotly contested middleweight crown, and to open his future to the multi-million dollar paydays that have expanded the wallets of the likes of Irishman Conor McGregor, said to now be worth some US$200 million thanks to the fame his fight career brought him.

Yoel Romero (pictured) of Cuba will go head to head with the 30-year-old on Sunday

The fighter only made his debut in Perth in 2018 and became a champ within two years

Adesanya has won 18 straight fights in mixed martial arts seven of those with the Las Vegas-based UFC, the biggest MMA promotion on the planet

Adesanya only made his debut for the UFC in Perth back in February 2018 – but said then he’d be champ with two years. How right he was.

‘You know what I’ve noticed over the years? The greats always do what they say what they are going to do,’ says UFC boss Dana White. ‘Israel has charisma, speaks well and can dance pretty good. He’s got the whole deal.’

Adesanya also has his family close by his side as he travels the globe, and his parents Femi and Taiwo are here beside him in the fight capital of the world, as their son prepares to grace the biggest stage there is.

‘They’re good,’ Adesanya said of his parents. ‘They like the perks, too. They’re just happy that I am happy, and they’re always here with me to make sure I’m good. If I’m good everything else is bullshit. As long as I’m happy, I’m comfortable then they’re comfortable.’

While Adesanya has fully embraced – and been embraced by – the world’s media this week, and in the months since his title win, he says trips back to his home in Auckland ensure that his feet remain fully grounded.

‘I just stay in my house and stay with the same close circle of friends I have always had,’ says Adesanya. ‘I’ve just bought a new place that is even more secluded. I mean I can go home and just get away. I enjoy my own time, and my own thought space.’

Israel Adesanya kicks Derek Brunson during their middleweight bout in a UFC match in November, 2018

The property is not too far away from City Kickboxing and the friends Adesanya trains with, and through whom he says he finds inspiration. At the UFC event in Auckland on February 23 three of those fighter-friend won, and lightweights Dan Hooker and Brad Riddell, and flyweight Kai Kara-France have made the trip to Las Vegas to support Adesanya’s first title defence.

‘I’m inspired by them,’ Adesanya says. ‘They just made me more sure of what I have to do this weekend. I’m inspired and I want to repeat their three-peat and I can take what they did into this fight. It’s bothers in arms, you know. When you’re in there in the trenches we’re all brothers and they know exactly how you need to be supported.’

In February, Adesanya was named Sportsman of the Year at the annual Halberg Awards, the first time the award had be handed to a fighter. Just as he has been doing this week, Adesanya stood front and centre to accept the accolades – but he kept looking at a bigger picture.

‘For me it was hard to get up for a race I never signed up for with that award, to be honest,’ he says.

‘But I understand the bigger picture. A lot of people came to support me that night and to support the game. It was about the sport of MMA and combat sports being recognised. We’re are on this journey together and we are taking our sport to the world.’

Adesanya is seen being given the middleweight championship belt by UFC President Dana White

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk