Urban kickboxing has made him more resilient.
Adesanya claims that the negative comments no longer affect him. Former double
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion hinted that racist comments have made him thick-skinned growing up in New Zealand.
Why Israel Adesanya sees the negativity of his former gym as useful
Adesanya claims he was insulted by some members of his former gym, CKB. However, he accepted it as part of his practice of facing negativity at press conferences. No matter how tough it made him, he points out that he’s still human.
“You know what it’s like to be black in New Zealand? Plus being in CKB is crap, what was it…” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Good practice. I liked it because it was good practice because I thought, okay, cool, if I can take the insults from these certain people in this gym, I can go to a press conference or whatever and the crap won’t bother me and I can fight back. So it was good practice, but I didn’t let anything in, but I didn’t let anything in.”
Adesanya (24-6) began training full-time at CKB in 2010. “The Last Stylebender” left the gym last May after 16 years. Adesanya now trains at Unity MMA with a small team coached by Andrei Paulet. Currently sliding with four races, Hei has the main goal on the schedule
UFC Saudi Arabia against Sharabutdin Magomedov (17-1) Dec. 5
