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Experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day—and that's a revelation Israel Adesanya has embraced over the past 11 months during his longest break from competition as a professional athlete.
The key phrase here is “professional athlete.” Since his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September of last year, Adesanya has approached his training with the commitment he believes is essential for a professional athlete.
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“I’d wake up, roll out of bed, grab my stuff, half drive to the gym because I’m kind of alive or awake, and then I’d get to the gym and that’s when I’d get the energy and I’d be up. Then after I train for about an hour-and-a-half, I go have breakfast at 11:30 am or midday. I don’t do that anymore. My chef has breakfast ready for me when I wake up, with my juice, my supplements, then I get going. Living like a professional athlete really helps. Amazing. Wow.”
Eating breakfast is just one of a handful of changes he’s made to his routine that’ve sparked new life in his mixed martial arts career ahead of one of the biggest moments of his life – a main event clash against middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305.
“We revamped the whole training system we’re doing in our gym, and it’s made everything fresh,” Adesanya said. “We even have de-load weeks now. Crazy. We’ve never had that before. I come back from that fresh, smashing the next four weeks. It’s been fun. This has been a really different perspective for me.
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“Maturity happens for me in different stages and the last 11 months I’ve grown a lot in many different ways. This is probably one of the best - if not the best - camps I’ve ever had.”
When he wasn’t training alongside his longtime teammates at City Kickboxing in Auckland, New Zealand, Adesanya embraced new experiences to fill the void of his extended break, including “life changing” activities like skydiving for the first time in Abu Dhabi.
During fight week, Adesanya shared to UFC.com how those experiences helped him find new focus and purpose.
“Well, for someone like me, even [Alexander Volkanovski] spoke about this, I think Dustin [Poirier] spoke about this, as well, having time off for us, we need purpose, we need something. For me. I don’t have any kids that I know of, so I don’t have another thing to put my everything into, so I had to find things to distract myself. Good things, bad things. I did some fun things. But yeah, it’s good to finally find my purpose and go for it again.
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“I had some epiphanies in my own way about what I’m doing with my life, what I want to do in this game. A lot of epiphanies, a lot of light bulb ‘a ha’ moments, so yeah, I enjoyed them. I enjoyed the learnings.”
Standing across from him inside the Octagon Sunday morning local time in Perth, Western Australia will be 185-pound champ Du Plessis, who captured UFC gold in January when he defeated Strickland at UFC 297.
To put it mildly, Adesanya and Du Plessis are far from friends, having exchanged barbs both online and face-to-face numerous times since the South African claimed the title. This already compelling matchup has only grown more intriguing as their heated rivalry has escalated over the past eight months.
Adesanya, who’s used his time off to reset his mind, body and spirit, tries to stay focused primarily on himself, but he’s channeled the intensity of their rivalry as motivation to push himself through his latest training camp.
UFC 305: Preview Every Fight | Fighters On The Rise | Israel Adesanya Career Highlights
“I just focus on myself,” Adesanya said. “I focus on the mission at hand. The storyline definitely fuels me because of his statements, and I feel like he needs to be educated on who paved the way for him to be in this position. It’s there, but it’s not the whole reason I’m here to fight him. He’s a guy I haven’t beat yet, he’s supposedly the best in the world, and we’re about to see about that.
As Adesanya mentioned, Du Plessis, as the current title holder, is technically the best middleweight fighter in the world. Since signing with the UFC in 2020, he’s won all seven of his fights, five by stoppage, while earning four Performance or Fight of the Night bonuses.
Even though he’s fought former champions like Strickland and Robert Whittaker, as well as UFC veterans Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson, none have been able to crack the code of Du Plessis. Now, it’s Adesanya’s turn to solve the puzzle.
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“They underestimate his spirit, his toughness,” Adesanya said of Du Plessis’ previous opponents. “He’s a tough guy. Also, they play his game. He makes it really dirty. And when I say dirty, it’s not in a bad way. He makes it really ugly and messy and then shoots on them and strikes from all angles and a different pace and cadence. I’ve looked at it, I’ve watched it for a while, and I look forward to exploiting it. He’s going to try to exploit me, but again, we shall see.
When it’s time to go, when I lock in, and I’m really locked in, I destroy people. And this one, I’ve been really locked in for this fight and I’m going to destroy this guy.”
UFC 305: Du Plessis vs Adesanya took place live from RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia on August 17, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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