Daniel Cormier reveals why Israel Adesanya turned down the opportunity to train with him for the Jon Jones fight

It seems that UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was a visionary even before joining the promotion back in 2018.

Daniel Cormier has revealed why Israel Adesanya turned down the opportunity to train with him for his second fight with Jon Jones. DC said that UFC Hall-of-Famer Rashad Evans was one of the first guys to recognize Israel Adesanya's talent. He had apparently asked DC to contact him for training ahead of his rematch with Jones.

"I asked him to train with me. I sent him a message and Rashad Evans put Adesanya and I into contact when I was fighting Jones. This was before Izzy was the man. Rashad is like a very smart guy, he is like 'there's a kid named Last Stylebender. Not in the UFC yet but you should reach out to him and see if he'll give you some sparring'."

At a recent press conference, Daniel Cormier said that Adesanya imagined himself competing for the title in the middleweight division even before joining the promotion. Since then middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and DC trained in the same gym at the time (American Kickboxing Academy), Adesanya didn't want to expose his game by training in front of Rockhold.

"One of the greatest moments of my life."🏆 @Stylebender reflects on his iconic fifth round moment. #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/VTc1CaOArS

— UFC (@ufc) March 4, 2021

Israel Adesanya is a visionary, claims Daniel Cormier

Cormier was amazed by the confidence which Adesanya had in himself, refusing to train with a UFC champion because he knew he'd one day end up there and become champion.

"I reached out to the guy and me and Izzy started messaging back and forth and he was not even in the UFC yet. He didn't come though because he had anticipated that at some point he'd be fighting Rockhold. So he had the forethought to not put himself in a situation where Luke would have eyes on him every single day. So I needed him but he just had forethought like 'you know what? Down the line I'm going to be in the championship picture and I may see Luke Rockhold so it's not best for me to go there' which is crazy because you're the champion asking a kid to come and train and he was like 'you know what, I'm going to be the champion one day so I don't want to give away my secrets'. It was great."

Israel Adesanya has the opportunity to become a two-division champion like DC when he takes on Jan Blachowicz in the main event of UFC 259 this weekend.

One more sleep. #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/XqJLu2lcDl

— UFC (@ufc) March 6, 2021

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