As fighter nicknames go, Israel Adesanya’s handle, The Last Stylebender, isn’t bad. But the “last” is unnecessary. No fighter ever has—or likely ever will—contort style quite like this guy. Born in Nigeria, fighting out of New Zealand, quoting Jane Goodall and arriving to a Manhattan office wearing a pearl necklace, French tip nails and rainbow shoes, Adesanya, 32, takes the perception of a cage fighter and applies a guillotine choke.
His entrance is all the more striking since it came three days after he retained his UFC middleweight title once again, this time with a clinical, if—in his eyes, anyway—disappointingly cautious, unanimous decision over his rival Robert Whittaker in UFC 271.