MMA: Israel Adesanya leaving his mark on UFC

Watching him destroy Rob Wilkinson at his UFC debut in Perth last Sunday, it’s hard to imagine anyone picking on Israel Adesanya.

Yet the Nigerian-born MMA fighter was a victim of bullying when growing up.

He began to talk to himself as if trying to uplift someone else, and it became a self-appreciating ritual for him, one he still uses.

“You can’t be self-deprecating when everyone else is trying to s*** on you,” the 28-year-old said. “You have to be able to talk to yourself in the right way.

“I think I was crying in the mirror one day after being picked on. I was upset and I just kind of talked to myself and then eventually I just started doing it … I’ve been doing it for years now.”

Although it made things hard for him during his high school years, Adesanya learned that in order to succeed, you need to speak your goals into existence.

He demonstrated that ahead of his UFC debut, repeatedly saying he would get the stoppage. And he did. With 1m 23s remaining in the second round, Adesanya, who goes by the nickname “the Style Bender”, put the middleweight division on notice with a TKO win over his Australian counterpart.

“I don’t like to eat my words,” he explained. “So I tell everyone that I’m going to win it. So whatever I have to do, whatever kind of subconscious thing that I have to do to drive me to win it, I have to do, so I make sure I get it done.

“I don’t like eating my own words and I like rubbing it in people’s faces.”

The Lagos-born Kiwi said four people turned down the opportunity to face him in his UFC debut before Wilkinson agreed to the fight. He showed why.