White: Israel Adesanya is the future

At age 18, Lagos, Nigeria-born Israel Adesanya watched ‘Ong Bak’ and decided to start kickboxing, going 32-0 as an amateur. He eventually moved on to MMA, where he went 11-0 and was signed by the UFC. Now 29, Adesanya has gone 4-0 in the UFC, most recently crushing #6 ranked Derek Brunson at UFC 230 on Saturday night.

At the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White was effusive in his analysis.

Israel has been a guy who has been on the rise here for a minute, but I really felt like tonight was his first big test, said White, as transcribed by Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting. His opponent hits like a truck and wrestles really well, and Madison Square Garden, opening the show, man, did he deliver. Many people — including me — think this kid is the future, and he went out and put a stamp on it tonight.

The minute I saw this kid, I was like, holy s*** this is really good, I like this. Then you hear him talk, I like that too. He’s the whole package. He is very ambitious, I would like him to pump the brakes a little bit. This guy wants to f***ing fight everybody right now and he wants to fight every month, which I love.

Listen, you want to become a big star? Keep fighting. If you’re a young guy who’s healthy enough to fight all the time, I absolutely advise it. Do it. What you don’t want to do is put on a great performance and disappear because people forget real quickly. But yeah, I like him very, very much and I don’t want to move him as fast as he wants to be moved, so he and I will get together and find a happy medium.

He came out tonight and put the stamp on it. He came out and really looked good tonight. If you look at how good he’s looked in his other fights, he didn’t even finish. He finished Derek Brunson tonight. It’s a big deal.

Next for ‘The Last Stylebender’ could be Anderson Silva, Luke Rockhold, or even a title shot if either middleweight champion Robert Whittaker or Kelvin Gastelum drop out.