Mike Tyson‘s legendary coach, Cus D’Amato, used to say that “fighting is 75% mental and only 25% physical.” Indeed, in a sport as tough and unforgiving as the fight game, where the competition is seemingly limitless and your chance of making it to the top statistically extremely slim, finding success often comes down to how tough you are mentally. And there are many ways to shore up your mental fortitude, including apparently doing psychedelics, which Israel Adesanya credits partly for finally being able to beat Alex Pereira in their UFC 287 rematch in 2023.

Speaking to Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman on their ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast, ‘Izzy’ revealed that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms before his second UFC clash with his nemesis ‘Poatan’, who had shockingly knocked him out in their first encounter at UFC 281. With that loss, the first since ‘Izzy’ became champ, there were questions whether Pereira was insurmountable for Adesanya, since ‘Poatan’ had beaten him in their two previous kickboxing matches, too.

“Like bro, the [Alex] Pereira fight in Miami, I did three not micro, macro mushroom trips in the shower where I was like able to just f—ing hone in. It’s different. I don’t go too deep, it’s more than I can feel myself. I can feel myself deeper. I don’t know if it’s your ancestors or whatever, but I could feel myself on a level I’ve never felt before and I wrote this thing on my mirror-I can’t remember what it is now-but I have a video on it and I wrote it on my mirror, ‘The greatest comeback in UFC history and it’s done by me’ some shit like that,” Adesanya said.

“I do f–k with psychedelics. I like to alter the state of my being once in a while just because I feel like I learn from different perspectives and take the blinders off. … So vulnerable. Even just edibles itself, you can sit there and f—ing go deep. You can go deep within yourself if you let yourself with meditation and just, like, damn, all this shit I’ve unpacked, they’re sitting there. They pile up,” he added.

Indeed, many people, including Joe Rogan, swear by psychedelics. Indeed, research has shown that psychedelics like mushrooms help reduce anxiety and stress by connecting neural activity and are even known to alter outlooks on life in people. So, exactly the kind of thing that would help a UFC superstar facing questions about his future. But right now, ‘Izzy’ is 1-4 in his last five, which has many wondering whether the former middleweight king is officially washed up. Well, Adesanya doesn’t think so, and knows exactly how to shut up his critics.

Israel Adesanya reveals who he wants to fight next

“I told [UFC matchmaker] Hunter [Campbell] already. I told my coach here, it’s time. I know who, I have a feeling who I wanna fight. You’ll like this one. I can get some get-back: Sean Strickland. He beat me fair and square in Sydney, five-nil. Just whooped my a-s badly,” Adesanya admitted.

Indeed, Sean Strickland, in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC, absolutely molly-whooped ‘Izzy’ from the first bell of their UFC 293 clash to win the middleweight championship of the world. So bad was the fight for the Kiwi-Nigerian that he went on a hiatus from fighting. But now, facing a string of losses and the prospect that he may never fight for the title again, ‘Izzy’ wants vengeance.

And not just for himself, Adesanya wants to shut up the loud-mouthed ‘Tarzan’ for the sake of the schoolboy ‘Izzy’ inside him, who used to get relentlessly bullied in his boarding school in New Zealand.

“I don’t wanna make excuses because he beat me. But then I just wanna show him if he beats me at my best. So, this time I’m gonna come in and correct. Everything he’s done since that. because I used to get bullied a lot as a kid. So he’s an embodiment of that in a sense. He attacked a young me, the inner child. So, I wanna protect him and get some get-back on him.”

Adesanya is more charged up than ever! What do you think about Israel Adeanya’s revelations about taking psychedelic mushrooms prior to his Alex Pereira UFC rematch?