Israel Adesanya is one of the only fighters to do a proper walkout, with dancing and theatrics, similar to WWE superstars. But it’s not as easy as it looks. Sure, dressing up like the Undertaker is cool, but is it cool enough to be fighting about it with your boss, especially if your boss is Dana White?
Living up to his nickname of ‘The last Stylebender, ‘ Adesanya has had some truly memorable walkouts throughout his glorious career. In fact, in 2023, for the UFC’s 30th anniversary year, the promotion released a list of the best walkouts of all time. Notably, Adesanya made it in the list twice.
The ‘Deadman with the urn’ walkout to the gong and the ‘Rest in Peace’ theme at UFC 276 made it to no 10 on the top 30 list. But five spots above it was Izzy’s choreographed dance crew walkout at UFC 243 (against Robert Whittaker) with the ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender‘ routine. And on both occasions, the UFC boss hated it.
So, how did Izzy convince him?
During an episode of the Pound4Pound podcast, co-host Henry Cejudo brought up Adesanya’s showmanship and praised him for it, asserting that not many could pull off that much swagger.
He was surprised to find out that long before the Whittaker fight at UFC 243, Adesanya actually had a beast of a walkout prepared for his fight against Anderson Silva- a ‘passing of the torch moment’ at UFC 234.
But he didn’t have the kind of star power needed to veto the UFC boss’ disdain for showmanship. “I was like let me do this entrance, and he’s like no“, Izzy told Cejudo.
However, his performance against Silva changed everything. Not only did he defeat the ‘Spider’, Adesanya show-boated his way into people’s hearts and minds during the fight, so much so that it became an integral part of his appeal.
Eight months later, when he matched up with Whittaker in Melbourne, Australia, to challenge for the middleweight title, the Kiwi fighter knew he held the bargaining chips.
“That was my show, biggest show, sold out, biggest attendance, biggest gate, I was like, ‘Yo I’m gonna do this my way or no way.’ So I told him, I was like Dana, I’m doing this, trust me it’ll work“, he told an already impressed Cejudo.
Israel Adesanya just changed the walkout game @stylebender #UFC243 pic.twitter.com/fyj6zHuqCd
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 6, 2019
Pressed, the UFC boss agreed. To his credit, the walkout worked; clips of his entrance went viral and were a major talking point after the fight.
Adesanya is a self-declared geek. He loves his comics, anime, and video games, and often pays tributes to his favorite characters during his walkouts.
For his fight against Marvin Vettori at UFC 273, he donned a Ronin hat and a Sakai Clan mask from the hit video game, Ghost of Tsushima.
And no, contrary to what many may think, it is not distracting for the former middleweight champion.
Izzy channels whatever character he cosplays
While fighters like Conor McGregor use their personality and their mic skills to do the work for them, Adesanya sees fights as a means to express himself better.
And since it comes so naturally to him, it also helps the fighter destress before stepping into the cage. “For me, it took my mind off the fight. because I already did the work and I knew what I could do”, he said.
In fact it has worked so well for him that he has spent many a fight eve worrying only about how cool his walkouts and getups are going to look.
Besides, it also helps charge him up, putting him in the right space of mind for the fight. “I swear I got activated, my body just went like Goku or some sh*t”, he said about the Whittaker win. To complement, after knocking out the Aussie, Izzy also introduced a flip in the middle of the octagon to celebrate the win.
