Dan
Hooker claims that Israel
Adesanya is physically different going into UFC
305.
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Adesanya challenges Dricus Du
Plessis for the middleweight title in the main event at UFC 305
on Saturday in Perth, Australia. Hooker, who is his
City Kickboxing teammate, also competes on the same card
against Mateusz
Gamrot in matchup of lightweight contenders.
Hooker recently revealed that Adesanya has primarily been working
on his strength and conditioning during his 10-month layoff, the
longest of his career. And Hooker can not only see the effects of
that in Adesanya’s physique but also feels them in sparring.
“So honestly, he’s hitting like an ox right now,” Hooker told
Fox Sports Australia. “And hitting harder than
I’ve ever seen before. He really is looking scary. In all the time
off, Izzy did nothing but work with his strength and conditioning
coach, lift weights, doing all of this stuff.
“There’s just a voice in the back of your head now that’s saying
something different. Previously when you’d get hit by Izzy, when he
kicks you in the arms, in the shoulders, you’d be like ‘OK, yeah,
that’s not too bad… But now? Now he kicks me in the arm and I go
‘f—k that’. That little voice in the back of my head starts saying
‘f—k, I should’ve studied harder in school, I should’ve got a real
job’. He’s hitting so hard now it makes you regret your life
decisions.”
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Adesanya revealed some significant changes he made in his training
regimen including hiring a personal chef. The former middleweight
champ also did a “pre-season camp” with strength and conditioning
coach Abiola Beckley and is working with High Performance Sport New
Zealand – which was responsible for the country’s Paris 2024
Olympics success.
Adesanya revealed that his 16-week camp also saw the entire
timetable readjusted at CKB.
“Our entire gym timetable has been revamped,” Adesanya said. “We’ve
kept those things that were useful and discarded others that
weren’t. Some things too we’ve just shifted to another part of the
week. But by the time I’m ready to go, it will have been a 16-week
camp. I had a preseason for this. I’ve never done that before. I
want to level up.”
While Adesanya never had trouble making weight due to his good
genetics, there’s now method to the Kiwi’s diet, which is already
showing him results.
“I’ve stopped eating Uber eats for every meal. I now have a chef,
which means I’m eating whole foods, good foods and fueling myself
properly,” Adesanya said. “Because I don’t understand the science
of nutrition, I’ve always just eaten when I was hungry; and eaten
whatever I liked. And I have been blessed with good genetics to
make weight. I never miss weight. But for me now, it’s about being
diligent and really purposeful with what I do. And I feel the
benefits working already.”
Adesanya lost his title at UFC 293 in September 2023 in a shocking
upset against Sean
Strickland, who then lost the belt to Du Plessis via split
decision at UFC 297 this past January.