Israel Adesanya Delivers Emotional Speech Thanking Coach After Receiving Purple Belt

Israel Adesanya is always in the battle to improve his skill-set. After all, a champion doesn’t get to the place they are in by being stagnant in terms of how they fight. To continue expanding his MMA arsenal, Israel Adesanya has been sharpening his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After putting the work in, Izzy finally received a purple belt. He shared clips on Twitter of receiving the belt, after which he gave a small speech.

“Man I’m speechless. Like Brad said, being here you just have to come in open. I’ve learned a lot coming here for jiu-jitsu, don’t get me wrong. I learned from every single person. But the main thing is this guy (Andre Galvao). I never thought about going to another gym I’ll see that same type of attitude, family attitude.”

Adesanya goes on to speak for about two more minutes, and we encourage you to go check it out. Despite being a UFC Champion, Adesanya’s inherent humility is on full display in this video as he accepted the honor of being promoted to a purple belt.

Israel Adesanya: Will the BJJ be useful for the striker?

The one thing that MMA fans remember Adesanya by is his electric striking. One of the reasons he rose to the status of UFC Champion just two years after debuting was the way he captured the imagination of the fans. His willingness to stand and bang with his opponents is what makes him so exciting to watch.

However, Adesanya is fighting at the championship level now. Being a multi-dimensional striker won’t be enough. He needs to become a multi-dimensional fighter in general. One of the ways Izzy is doing that is by pursuing belts in his BJJ training. But that is an odd skill-set to prioritize when you have a 86% takedown defense.

Izzy shouldn’t expect a heated ground battle against his next opponent, Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Blachowicz. However, it never hurts to know those skills just in case the fight goes a place you didn’t expect it to. Adesanya is preparing himself for the worst, and that is what a true champion does.