Israel Adesanya has taken a trip down memory lane to his iconic walkout at UFC 243, just prior to him defeating Robert Whittaker to become the new UFC middleweight champion.
As we know, Israel Adesanya is one of the best middleweights of all time in mixed martial arts – and nobody can really dispute that. In equal measure, though, he’s fallen on hard times recently, with many wondering whether or not there’s a viable path back to the world title scene for him.
Regardless of whether or not he gets back there, the accomplishments of Israel Adesanya in the UFC deserve to be celebrated. He has done some wonderful things since entering the promotion, and perhaps his finest hour came when he defeated Robert Whittaker to become the undisputed champion.
Hot on the heels of his epic win over Kelvin Gastelum, ‘Stylebender’ came to the cage after a WWE-style walkout that had the masses out of their seats. In a recent interview, Izzy spoke about that moment and the fight as a whole.
Israel Adesanya revealed that he prepared his iconic walkout against Robert Whittaker just the night before the fight — and he was more worried about nailing the walkout than the actual fight.
“That was just for fun. I prepped that walkout the night before. So, going to bed, I… pic.twitter.com/Lt0GMk1fj4
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 18, 2025
Israel Adesanya talks about iconic walkout
“This was just for fun,” Adesanya said. “For me, I enjoyed doing this because I prepped the night before this walkout. So, going to bed, I had the replay of the walkout, the practice, in my phone, and I was like, ‘F*ck, this is going to look cool as f*ck’ as I fell asleep.
“So I wasn’t worried about the fight. We already did the work.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
For Israel Adesanya, the future can be anything he wants it to be. If he wants to continue competing, the UFC will undoubtedly be willing to give him some interesting opponents. At the same time, if he wants to ride off into the sunset, he has earned the right to do that on his own terms.
