Israel Adesanya reveals he suffered significant knee injury prior to UFC 287: ‘It added to my confidence’

Reigning UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya seems to have entered his latest fight with a significant injury.

Earlier this month, Adesanya would rematch Alex Pereira, and win arguably the most important fight of his professional fight after suffering a stoppage loss just six months earlier. Adesanya would land a clinical right hand before following it up, shutting Pereira’s lights out and retaining his title.

Israel Adesanya’s knee injury

Talking on his YouTube channel, Adesanya would reveal that he suffered a significant knee injury prior to the bout, releasing a video of him training when it occurred.

“I’ve been here before,” he said. “My UFC debut, three weeks out, I did my right ankle. I remember the next day, or that night, calling [his physiotherapist], and being like, ‘Yo, I need to see you tomorrow, ASAP.’

“He had to like re-injure it, or cause pain to it — I don’t know. It’s f****** magic or whatever, but I remember biting on a towel and sitting there in pain, screaming as he’s f****** massaging my hurt ankle where it’s not supposed to be massaged, because it hurt, but you’re supposed to.” (H/T MMAFighting)

“So I was like, ‘This has happened. This is my perspective. This was meant to happen. I’ll overcome this.’” Adesanya continued. “So the comeback of getting from then to the cage was already a big win for me, because after doing that — because that was really f****** bad — but I was like, if I can get through that and get to the cage, this fight, I can get through it. So it added to my confidence, added to my fortitude. I was like, they can’t break me.”

While no date has been decided, Adesanya is set to face the winner of Robert Whittaker Vs. Dricus Du Plessis.

Who would you like to see Israel Adesanya face next?