But there were lessons to be taken away from that first fighting chapter.
“F**k what everyone says, that’s what I can take,” Adesanya said. “Because I gave a s**t what people said back then a little bit. Even though I didn’t a lot, I still did a little bit. But now I have no reservations for anyone else’s thoughts.”
And there could be nothing more liberating for the New Zealand-based Nigerian.
“I’m older now,” he said. “That’s one of the main things. I’m older, I’m wiser, so it’s liberating in the sense that it’s all up to you. You get to be the master, the Player One of your own destiny.”
By midway through 2017, Adesanya had put kickboxing aside and he was 9-0 in MMA. The buzz was growing, and while he heard it, he had learned to not let other people’s voices get in his head.
“I was just fighting and staying active, not rushing the process and enjoying it as it came,” he said. “It took me a while to get to that point, and you just feel it. You know when it’s time. I had my experience, I felt like one of the best in the world at MMA, so I was like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’”
