JRE MMA Show #82 with Israel Adesanya

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Three, two, ladies and gentlemen, the champ is here.

Israel Adesanya (0:04)

My man.

Joe Rogan (0:04)

Salute.

Israel Adesanya (0:05)

Salute.

Joe Rogan (0:05)

Last time.

Last time you were here, you were neither the interim nor the undisputed. Now you got it all.

Israel Adesanya (0:14)

I'm the double interim champ.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

You got it. Why say double, you keep saying that, double interim.

Israel Adesanya (0:18)

Double interim, I don't know, cause-

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Robert Whitaker's the champ.

Israel Adesanya (0:21)

Yeah, he was.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

You knocked him out, you're the champ.

Israel Adesanya (0:24)

Cause when I was there, you know, even my last fight, I feel like it's my first title defense, to be honest. Cause I was waiting for something to change. I was waiting for that feeling that I had in Atlanta, but never came. And within three days, I was like, I felt like I just defended the belt. Cause technically I was the champ as well.

I was the champ. And if he had beat me, he'd have got one of those rubies you put on this.

So I'm looking for my ruby as well.

Joe Rogan (0:44)

They get a ruby?

Israel Adesanya (0:45)

Yeah, like that's the thing. You know how you used to get a new belt?

Joe Rogan (0:47)

Yeah.

Israel Adesanya (0:47)

Yeah, you don't get a new belt anymore. So what they do is, you send this off.

SPEAKER_3 (0:52)

This isn't actually my one, my one.

Israel Adesanya (0:55)

I've sent it off.

Joe Rogan (0:55)

This isn't yours?

Israel Adesanya (0:56)

Yeah, but-

Joe Rogan (0:57)

You sent yours already?

Israel Adesanya (0:58)

I sent, you take this plaque off, this plaque on the side, and then you send it off, then they put a ruby and send it back to you.

Joe Rogan (1:03)

They put a ruby in the plaque?

Israel Adesanya (1:04)

Yeah. So you collect like the infinity stones or whatever.

Yeah, so I got the soul stone.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

Dude, I used to not like this belt, now I like it better.

Israel Adesanya (1:14)

It's grown. Yeah, it took me like maybe two days after everyone complained about it, then I looked at it, and when I first saw it, I think it was at the PI, and I was like, you know what?

I fuck with it.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

Yeah, for a while, I was like, ah, the old one was better. And now I'm like, I don't think so anymore.

Israel Adesanya (1:27)

Nostalgia, nostalgia.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

Yeah, it gets you every time. This one's cleaner. Yeah, very. It's just like sharp.

Israel Adesanya (1:32)

More legible. The old one, it was cool, and I still like to, I could buy one on the website, hopefully.

Joe Rogan (1:37)

Yeah, but those are light.

Israel Adesanya (1:38)

Yeah, but you just for like nostalgic purposes, and just cause, you know, I've been a fan, I should have got one of those. I came at the end of it.

Joe Rogan (1:46)

Colby's still walking around with one.

Israel Adesanya (1:47)

Man, don't get attached to these things, man. I only tell, I flex with them for a little bit, you know, cause even my last, after Atlanta, my coach, he was kind of worried cause I was going to Nigeria, I was going to all these shows. I got to like show it off, flex it, but he's my coach. So Eugene's like, man, you know, don't think you're the champ yet. But I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm the champ.

But then there was a point when we moved gyms, then I just kind of, all right, put in this box with everything else. And then he kind of posted about it cause he saw like, okay, the switch happened. Like it's game time now. So same thing, I'm doing my tour right now, victory tour, walk around, do all this shit. But then even being at the fights last week, and I go FOMO, cause you know, after the fights, I see what's up, people talking about me, right, right, right. So I'm like, man, I gotta get back to the gym.

So when I get back, I don't even look at this thing.

Joe Rogan (2:32)

That's interesting. So you're aware that you could get too into the moment.

You can get too wrapped up in the fact that you won the title and maybe slack off a little, but maybe take yourself too seriously.

Israel Adesanya (2:44)

Yeah, cause I mean, a lot of people, this is their goal.

They're like, I want to become the UFC champion. They get it done and then what happens after in their next fight, they lose it. Or they lose sight, track of what really matters. So some guys like Kobe, for example, he's walking around with the belt when Usman whips his ass, or if Usman whips his ass, then what's going to happen? You're going to walk around with that belt? How are you going to feel?