About Israel Adesanya
Israel Mobolaji Temitayo Odunayo Oluwafemi Owolabi Adesanya is a Nigerian-New Zealand professional mixed martial artist, former kickboxer, and boxer. As a mixed martial artist, he currently competes in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former two-time UFC Middleweight Champion. In kickboxing, he is a former Glory Middleweight Championship title challenger. As of 10 March 2026, he is #4 in the UFC middleweight rankings. Adesanya's first exposure to fighting and an early influence on him was watching the British boxer Prince Naseem Hamed. Two years later Adesanya made the decision to cease his studies in pursuit of a career in kickboxing and went on to amass an amateur record of 32–1 before turning professional and fighting in China. The two of them fought a rematch at Glory of Heroes 3, two years after their first fight, with Adesanya winning a unanimous decision. Verlinden won the fight by unanimous decision.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.