Israel Adesanya has attained such immense size and strength that his longtime training partner and current UFC lightweight, Dan Hooker, finds it unappealing and uninteresting to engage in sparring sessions with him.
The reason behind it is that “The Last Stylebender” is delivering powerful strikes.
That might surprise fans who remember Adesanya’s critique of heavyweight champion Jon Jones, once insisting skills — not size — were the key to a successful title reign. Either way, Adesanya will need to cut all the way down to 185 pounds for his UFC 305 comeback.
“Israel is … I can’t even bother sparring him at the moment. Like the way he’s hitting me, I think he’s like 105 kilos,” Hooker told Submission Radio. “I’m just like, f*cking just kick, like, just kick me in the leg. And I was like ‘ah get f*cked’. I was just like, nah. Yeah, like that. He’s had some time off. He was carrying some injuries. He spent a lot of time just packing on some size and like a lot of strength, bro. And he’s just he’s hitting like a truck man. Yeah. I can’t even be bothered sparring him, like he’s hitting too hard. So I can’t wait until he can get out there. So if you think you can just walk in his front door and raid his fridge, I think you’re in for a rude awakening.”
Adesanya (24-3) will challenge reigning middleweight champion and bitter rival, Dricus Du Plessis, for the 185-pound strap in the UFC 305 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, locked and loaded for Sat., Aug. 17, 2024 inside RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia.
Expect an old foe to be cheering him on.
UFC 305 marks the first appearance for Adesanya since losing the middleweight crown to Sean Strickland at UFC 293, a span of over 10 months.
And a lot has changed between then and now…
