Is Israel Adesanya Chinese? During the “real African” debate in the UFC, many fans supported Israel Adesanya, the middleweight champion. However, at UFC 290, some of those fans might have changed their minds because of what “Izzy” said.
Even his opponent in UFC 293, Sean Strickland, disagreed with Adesanya’s claims of being a true African. Strickland mentioned that Israel had lived in China for several years and even carried the Chinese flag when entering the Octagon.
It’s true that Adesanya has spent a lot of time in China, and he became famous by defeating Chinese fighters in Chinese promotions.
This made some people think he was Chinese. So, if he’s not from China, what is Israel Adesanya’s real nationality?
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Some fans are a bit confused about where Israel Adesanya is from because his upcoming opponent, Sean Strickland, keeps calling him Chinese.
Strickland first talked about this on Joe Rogan’s podcast earlier this year, and then a video of Adesanya holding the Chinese flag got a lot of attention.
In another video, Adesanya talked about how he’s embraced Chinese culture. But to make things clear, Adesanya was born in Nigeria and now lives in New Zealand. However, he spent a big part of his kickboxing career in China, where they called him “The Black Dragon.”
Adesanya often says that his time in China helped him become the fighter he is today. So, even though he’s not Chinese, China has played a significant role in his career. Adesanya talked about it in the South China Morning Post:
“It took me a while to adapt, you know. But I settled in and I won the fans over. They took me to heart you know and they started to call me the Black Dragon and I started winning. I just kept getting in there, bam, week after week, month after month. You learn how to fight, how to get hit, how to be disappointed, and how to bounce back.”
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Sean Strickland has been saying mean things about Israel Adesanya, calling him ”Chinese” a lot before their UFC 293 fight in Sydney next weekend.
He even called Adesanya “The Last Stylebender a Chinese sl*t.” Strickland promised to win the UFC middleweight title for America. Strickland also added:
“I always call him China’s little sl*t ’cause here’s the thing you guys, we have all been a wh*re to somebody. We have all been friends with somebody we shouldn’t have been friends with. We have all been buddies because maybe he can plug me into this, maybe he can give me a dollar, but that level of f****** being a sl*t, dude. My God.”
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Israel Adesanya doesn’t seem too upset by all of this and even made a joke about winning for China. But when the video of him holding the Chinese flag first came out, Adesanya did explain why.
Although he didn’t talk about that specific video, he did say he used to appear in Chinese ads to make some extra money. He said:
“I grabbed a random baby. and when they came off the hook, I grabbed it off from the dad. so I’m like the thing goes, My Family in China blah blah blah.. it looks like I’m like part of this Chinese man, and I’m grabbing the baby…I feel like it’s just kind of funny, I see some of it not too much of it but some of it, and I’m like.. ahh that’s right. but aye man, I made money.”