The current UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, loves anime. The Nigerian-born New Zealand fighter has never shied away from accepting. It’s not just that he loves watching it, anime has also helped him prepare for fights.
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In a recent interview, ‘The Last Stylebender’ was asked if he watched anime before a fight to get into a particular mood. Replying to the question, he said, “I have, I have, during the fight week you have a lot of time. I’d binge-watch some episodes to kinda like put myself in the mood. For the Costa fight, I was feeling quite dark because everyone wrote me off from my fight before. Because everyone said it was boring and I was a boring fighter. I was like, What?”
“Yeah, that Akatsuki shirt just happened. I don’t plan these things, they just happen to happen just because I don’t know, simulation. I was like, yeah, you are going to appreciate my art and appreciate it. And, oh yeah, they appreciated it, man. They did.” he added.
Israel Adesanya wanted to be an animator
One of the reasons Adesanya fell in love with anime was the animation. Except for the fights scenes, it was the animation that grabbed his attention, and now he’s revealed he wanted to be an animator himself.
In a recent interview, when asked if he wanted to do that, he said yes. He wanted to work some of the biggest companies and was good at vector art. However, his dream is not over yet, as he plans to open his own production house. He said, “Yeah, it’s still going to happen. I’m gonna have my own production company after fighting. I’m gonna create what I have in here (mind) and just put it out there. And also get people that I like and the people I find inspiring. I want to give them a platform to create as well.”
Adesanya has also landed a role in Netflix’s Anime series, Baki.
What did you make of Adesanya’s performance against Costa? Do you think wearing the Akatsuki shirt helped him focus? Let us know in the comments!
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