Israel Adesanya didn’t earn the average salary for his UFC debut. He made well north of it.
Adesanya (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) entered the UFC with some buzz from his decorated kickboxing career and drew Rob Wilkinson in his promotional debut at UFC 221 in February 2021. He won by second-round TKO and was one of two Performance of the Night winners in Perth, Australia.
“My UFC debut, I didn’t make the 10 and 10 (thousand) like everyone else,” Adesanya said on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast. “I made six figures and then I made a 50K bonus on top of that. Stole the show from – who was the main event? (Luke) Rockhold vs. Yoel (Romero), I believe. I felt like I stole the show, people were talking about me, and I was f*cking on top of the world.”
Despite the standout performance, Adesanya didn’t feel the high he expected.
“I’d go home, and I’d just f*cking crash,” Adesanya said. “I didn’t understand. For me, that’s when I started going to therapy because I realized like OK, this is – I don’t want to say this is bad, but it was bad. I was like, ‘Damn, I shouldn’t be sad.’ And then you feel guilty for feeling sad. You’re like, ‘Why am I depressed?’
“I figured it out. It’s the stimulus. You’re the man, this, that, cameras, lights, action. Then I go home, and I’m in my dark room, and I just chill, and there’s no stimulus. It’s like coffee. The coffee high, and then when the coffee stimulus wears off, you have the crash. It’s like that but for your spirit.”
Adesanya said it took until his fourth UFC fight against Derek Brunson to figure out how to regulate his emotions. “The Last Stylebender” went on to have a Hall of Fame worthy career by capturing the UFC middleweight title twice, with five title defenses in his first reign.
Adesanya, 35, is currently on a three-fight losing streak after suffering a second-round TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov on Feb. 1.
