“I want to give people a certain feeling when I fight, whether they love me or hate me. Even if they hate me, I want them to feel like, ‘Oh, come on. I hope he…’ Like in the first Whittaker fight, I could feel the energy in the crowd was just like, “I hope this **** gets knocked out.” Because I come in there f****** showing off, dancing. I know, I could feel it. They were just like, ‘F***, it’d just be awesome if this guy just gets dropped in the first round by Whittaker,’ and then that’s it. I could feel it. But I thrive off that. I thrive off that energy, whether it be good or bad. I just want to give people that feeling.
“I don’t focus on numbers. Those kind of things, I feel like they’re fleeting. Not really, they stay there, if they’re in the record books, they’re in history. But I’ve already achieved some stuff in the record books that’s going to be there in history forever. But for me, it’s about the feeling. That’s what I care about. The feeling I give people when I fight, the anticipation.”
The electric crowd in Melbourne, Australia was filled with “that feeling” in late 2019 as Adesanya hoisted the undisputed strap.
“After the last Whittaker fight, I was happy. One thing I was really proud of was that every person with a Stylebender shirt, everyone that was supporting me could walk out of there with their head held high. And that was beautiful. Because a lot of Kiwis flew over for that fight. And to walk out of that stadium with their head held high, like, “Yeah, our guy won.” That feeling is going to sit with them forever. So it’s those kind of feelings I want to create in people. I don’t really care about numbers and all that s***. They’ll just follow me eventually.”