Israel Adesanya is set to return at UFC 305 on August 17th against middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. It’s been a minute since “The Last Stylebender” has fought — 11 months, which is a long stretch considering Izzy fit his last three fights into the same amount of time.
In a new interview, Adesanya says the break was essential to regaining focus on what he wanted to do in this final phase of his fight career.
“The hiatus was definitely needed,” he told Sias Du Plessis. “Because physically, mentally, even spiritually, I just needed a break from not just the fights but from the training camps and the constant rigmarole we put our bodies through as warriors. So it was good for me to just unplug from the game.”
“I’ve learned a lot in the time I’ve been away. I’ve always been a patient guy if you’ve actually paid attention to what I’m doing, but I’ve got more patience now, more clarity. And I’m sure of what I wanna achieve in this this last chapter of my game.”
physicality and strength of Dricus Du Plessis, Adesanya didn’t seem concerned.
“I fought the largest middleweight, Alex Pereira, and I knocked him out,” he said. “How am I gonna deal with Dricus’ uniqueness? It’s just be unique myself. Be unique to who I am.”
“Never again will I ever stray away from my style or my flow just because I wanna do something different or pander or anything like that. I’m always gonna stick to my style and stick to what I do best, which is beating people up in fantastic fashion. And, yeah, I’ve done that my whole career, and I wanna get back to that. I’m not really worried about the outcome. It’s more about the journey.”
We’ll get to see the results of Adesanya’s mental refocusing on August 17th. Check out the full UFC 305 card right here.
