JRE MMA Show #35 with Israel Adesanya

Joe Rogan (0:02)

Four, three, two, one.

Style Bender, ladies and gentlemen. Salute, sir. Congratulations, man.

Israel Adesanya (0:12)

Thank you, thank you.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Dude, your fight Friday night was, that was what you would call like a coming out party.

Israel Adesanya (0:18)

Yeah, in America, in America.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

In America, yeah. People got to see.

Israel Adesanya (0:22)

First fight in Vegas, first main event, first top ten guy. And I feel like I got to kind of like shut a lot of people up because before that fight, a lot of people were kind of like, shit, it's too much, it's too soon.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

The hype.

Israel Adesanya (0:36)

Yeah, he's like, oh, he's this and that. And for me, I wouldn't take insult to it because they don't know. You know, you can't fault them for it.

Joe Rogan (0:44)

Well, you did a smart thing in the way you handled your transition to MMA, too. I mean, you really took your time and did it right.

You and I talked for the first time about this. How many years ago?

Israel Adesanya (0:55)

2015, I think. Yeah, you hit me up on Instagram and said, you know, when am I going to call one of your fights?

Joe Rogan (1:00)

Yeah.

Israel Adesanya (1:01)

And I was like, yeah, we'll take our time. Because my coach, he's the mastermind behind all this, Eugene Bearman.

Without him, my career would be in the shitter. So he kind of let just take our time. There's no rush. Smart way to do it. 100%. Because you see, like, looking for a fight. Guys like, for example, Sage Northcutt. He's been up and down in the UFC fight, you know, like his rise and stuff like that. So you have to, you can't just come in here with like maybe three fights, unless maybe like a Mickey Gull, who also has extensive background in something else like Jiu Jitsu.

But yeah, I took my time, fought around the world, fought different body types, different styles. And then eventually, I think the UFC were like, okay, what do you want? Come on, like, let's go.

Joe Rogan (1:42)

Well, you built up a lot of hype outside. You built up some hype kickboxing, you built up some hype in MMA, but you built up a lot of internet hype.

There was a lot of highlight videos made of you and people like, oh shit, look at this guy. And then dudes were breaking down your videos, like breaking down technique, like look how he sets this up. There was one that, was it Brendan Dorman? Who did it recently? Was it Lawrence Kenshin? No, maybe it was Brendan Dorman.

Israel Adesanya (2:05)

I saw him yesterday. Yeah, Brendan Dorman.

Joe Rogan (2:08)

He did one where you set that dude up and then left high kicked him?

Israel Adesanya (2:12)

Oh no, that was a Lawrence Kenshin.

Joe Rogan (2:14)

Yeah. Dude, those guys are so important.

Israel Adesanya (2:16)

Fun fact about that kick, we're drilling it.

Eugene taught it to me that set up probably seven days before. And he said if this lands at the finisher, he said that.

Joe Rogan (2:25)

Wow.

Israel Adesanya (2:25)

Whatever. And then in the fight, something happened and I didn't even think about it. Just boom, and it landed. And I hurt my foot on his head actually.

I actually hurt my foot because that was the third fight of the night. So it was a tournament. So the final fight and I hurt my foot on his head. And I was like, okay, because you kind of see me limp a little bit. Then I went in on him and just, yeah, finished it off.

Joe Rogan (2:44)

That was a beautiful high kick, man. The way you set it up was so interesting, too, because you forced him into this weird battle of erratic movement. Like you did a lot of this with them.

Israel Adesanya (2:53)

You got to take care of this first. A lot of guys think, like, with Faraz Zahabi, what he said, take care of this, cramble your brain.

Joe Rogan (2:59)

Dude, Faraz Zahabi is a treasure.

Israel Adesanya (3:01)

100%.

Joe Rogan (3:01)

He's a treasure.

Israel Adesanya (3:02)

I like the way he thinks. I do, too. And I listen to that podcast, and yeah, when he said that, I was like, that's what we do. I like to make these guys second guess themselves. Just get stuck, like, okay, he's right here.

Like, okay, I got to reset right here. Yeah, okay, cool, cool. Oh, just got jabbed. And then they just get flustered. And they can talk all this stuff. Oh, we're going to do this and this and that, right? And it's different when you see it on TV. But when you're in... Because I've had it done to me. I've got teammates that do it to me all the time. If I'm not on my game, they do it to me. I'm like, so this is what it feels like.