UFC fighter Israel Adesanya is mainly known for his lethal knockouts and shot selections during fights. The Last Stylebender is also one of the best middleweight champions in the MMA community. MMA enthusiasts were very surprised to know that Adesanya is also a big fan of anime. During a conversation with GQ Sports, the middleweight champion stated that he started watching anime from childhood, shows like Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. From there, he continued to explore and watch many new anime, and since then, he has remained a weeb. His love for anime places him in a unique position among fighters because very few fighters mention anime and show support for the community. Anime fans who don’t know much about the UFC are now also fans of Adesanya.
The Death Note Simulation
During his fight against Robert Whittaker, Israel enacted Light Yagami, who is the protagonist of one of the most watched and popular anime “Death Note”. This anime series is about a man named Light Yagami who finds a mysterious notebook, which gives him the will to kill anyone whose name he writes in it. Israel wanted to pay a tribute to this show, which he did by writing Whittaker’s name in the book, pointing out that he would die from the blows inflicted by Adesanya. Once, he also mentioned that Death Note forced him to think outside the box.
Jujutsu Kaisen reference
Adesanya tweeted his animated photo on March 7, 2021, with a reference to the popular anime Jujutsu Kaisen. The caption of the photo was “Cuuuursseeesss #mojojojo #JujutsuKaisen”. In JJK, there are sorcerers who use curse energy to exorcise the cursed spirits and fight evil. The photo he posted of himself was a reference to one of the main characters of the series, Gojo Satoru, who is considered the strongest. His tweet amazed many anime fans and got over 30K likes.
Rock Lee poses during the fights
Israel Adesanya has a great love for the “Naruto” series and its characters. One of the characters in the series, Rock Lee, is known for his toughness, fighting style, and most importantly, his pose. Adesanya is fascinated by this character and poses like him in most of his fights and press conferences. During his fight against Aderson Silva in UFC 234, the Stylebender made a move that surprised many Naruto fans. Once, he mentioned that the reason he got into “Naruto” was the Rock Lee vs. Gaara fight. His praise for Rock Lee and the show has been incomparable.
Voice over for Baki
Israel got to live every anime fan’s dream when he did a voiceover for the anime series “Baki”. It is a hard-core fighting anime series. He uploaded a video on his YouTube channel and said “I’m good at different accents, tones, and languages, and I’ve always been someone who likes to dabble in the world of voice-overs”.
Mention of an underrated anime
In an interview with GQ Sports, when “The Stylebender” mentioned the anime movie “Spriggan” which came out in 1998, this established him as a true anime fan. This is an anime about which most anime fans are unaware. Israel ranked it 5th out of his top 5 favorite anime series. This shows his true love for the anime genre because he recommended “Spriggan”.
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