There’s no UFC fighter that does it quite like Israel Adesanya.
The two-time UFC Middleweight Champion might not be at the top of the heap like he was a few years ago but there’s no denying what Israel Adesanya was able to accomplish in the premier promotion.
Before he went on a three-fight losing skid to Sean Strickland, current champion Dricus du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov, Adesanya racked up style points in his last win against his longtime kickboxing rival Alex Pereira, who was up 3 nil on him from the ring to the Octagon.
Pereira became the first man to KO Adesanya in their kickboxing rematch in 2017, later replicating the feat in the UFC with a standing TKO in 2022 (UFC 281).
The series between Pereira and Adesanya came to an end shortly after at UFC 287 where Adesanya fired imaginary arrows at ‘Poatan’s’ lifeless body after knocking him out cold in the second round.
David Goggins says ‘no one’ celebrates like Israel Adesanya
Adesanya would tell of his latest victory with Navy SEAL David Goggins, a man renowned for his mental fortitude and seemingly unbreakable will.
What stood out to Goggins in the triumph over Pereira wasn’t just the knockout but what came immediately after.
“No one, no one that I’ve ever seen—the way you celebrate, you celebrate in that moment,” Goggins told Adesanya on the FREESTYLEBENDER YouTube channel.
“You’re not like, ‘Oh, I won,’ and then you come back and do it.
“[No], you already visualized what the f*** you were gonna do because when you beat him, it happened so fast with you pulling for those arrows…
“That s*** was sick,” Goggins said of Adesanya’s post-fight celebration at UFC 287.
Visualizing the moment, Adesanya says he rehearsed the iconic bow and arrow celebration in the shower before.
David Goggins on Israel Adesanya conquering MCL tear against Alex Pereira
Adesanya may have made it look easy with his picture-perfect knockout of Pereira but the road to getting there was far from it for the former champion.
After he suffered his first loss at middleweight to Pereira in Nov. 2022, Adesanya asked Dana White for an immediate rematch four months later, knowing in his heart he could overcome his ‘demon’.
“You kept coming after the demon,” Goggins said.
“How you fast you came back after you lost, that was purposeful.”
The title fight at UFC 287 wasn’t one way traffic for Adesanya with Pereira eating up his leg with kicks just as he did months prior at Madison Square Garden.
“After the second [leg kick], I was like ‘f***, again?'” Adesanya told Goggins.
Adesanya suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear weeks out from the fight, refusing to pull out due to the injury.
“I’ve been there,” said Goggins, who has broken metatarsal bones in his feet and suffered severe shin splints among other gnarly injuries in ultramarathons.
“When you know, ‘This is f*****. I’m f*****. I’m probably gonna lose…’ that’s the mindset.”
But still, Israel Adesanya was able to weather the storm, withstanding Alex Pereira’s attacks for a reverberate knockout, bouncing off the cage to send Pereira to the canvas with punches—further cementing his legacy as one of the greatest middleweights of all time and David Goggins’ favorite fighter.