Israel Adesanya performed choreographed dance routine before knocking out Robert Whittaker to claim
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya captured his title in the most spectacular fashion and his pre-fight antics only added to the legendary victory.
‘The Last Stylebender’ faced Robert Whittaker in front of 57,127 at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium, which remains the biggest UFC crowd of all time, in 2019.
Ahead of the biggest fight of his life at UFC 243, Adesanya was preparing for victory but also working on a dance that he showcased during his ring walk.
The 32-year-old wowed the packed stadium when he performed a choreographed routine, that included an acrobatic aerial cartwheel, before entering the octagon.
It was a high-risk move, as if he had lost against Whittaker, he would’ve been inundated with abuse for not taking the fight seriously and dancing when he should’ve been training for his biggest fight to date.
In reality, Adesanya’s dance routine only added to one of the most complete performances in UFC history and made him a superstar.
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The former kickboxer dominated Whittaker, dropping him at the end of round one before spectacularly knocking him out in round two.
The New Zealander remains the UFC middleweight champion and has made several impressive defences against the likes of Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero and he even beat ‘The Reaper’ for a second time.
Despite all that, he still looks back at his title win as the best moment of his career.
"It's unreal. It's nothing like you've ever felt before. I'm glad to be a part of a few privileged [people] on this planet that was able to experience that. I know it was in your hometown, I beat your boy. I'm sorry, not sorry,” Adesanya recently said of UFC 243.
Adesanya claimed to feel on top of the world after performing his dance routine and that confidence carried into one of the most impressive title-winning performances of all time.
“It's all energy. I walked out there. I did my dance, I was feeling confident, I was feeling bada** and I knew I was poking some bears in enemy territory,” he said.
“To go out there and showcase what I did, it's unreal. It's one of those moments, not just in my career, but in my life, I would never ever forget and it's with me forever."
The UFC fan favourite is hoping to create another life-long memory when he steps back into the octagon to defend his title once again on July 2.
Adesanya successfully defended his middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Jared Cannonier.
The judges scored the contest 49-46, 49-46, 50-45 in Adesanya’s favour after a technical contest that saw the champion use his technical striking to point his way to victory.
“I’ll tell you one thing, they had an excellent game plan,” Adesanya said afterwards. “It was really hard to get my follow ups going, my second phases going because they had a good game plan.”
“Look we know who’s next,” Adesanys said calling after calling out Alex Pereira. “Trust me, the first time I told you, it was an error on my part spamming the right hand and that was in kickboxing.
“It’s easy to knockout, what’s the hillbilly’s name [Sean Strickland] because he was parrying the jabs but like I said at the press conference, the next time I put you on skates, you’re going to get frozen like Elsa.”
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