Why did Israel Adesanya represent China in his kickboxing days? Unearthing the origin of Sean Strickland's ongoing joke

Fans were slightly confused about Israel Adesanya's nationality when Strickland repeatedly labeled him as Chinese heading into their UFC 293 clash. While Strickland initially took the first dig during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast in 2023, a subsequent video of Adesanya holding the Chinese flag went viral.

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Why did Israel Adesanya represent China in his kickboxing days?

After Sean Strickland's allegations went viral on social media, Israel admitted to having embraced the Chinese culture in a video. While he was born in Nigeria and currently resides in New Zealand, a large chunk of Adesanya's decorated kickboxing career was spent competing in Chinese local circuits where he was known as 'The Black Dragon'.

The UFC middleweight champ has often credited his days spent in China for shaping him to be the fighter he is today. Adesanya said:

"It took me a while to adapt, you know. But I settled in and I won the fans over. They took me to heart you know and they started to call me the Black Dragon and I started winning. I just kept getting in there, bam, week after week, month after month. You learn how to fight, how to get hit, how to be disappointed and how to bounce back.” [H/T South China Morning Post]

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Israel Adesanya explains starring in Chinese commercials

Sean Strickland was incessant with his 'Chinese' digs at Israel Adesanya leading up to their UFC 293 title fight in September 2023. Labeling 'The Last Stylebender' a 'Chinese s**t', Strickland had vowed to bring the UFC middleweight title back to America.

Adesanya seemingly wasn't bothered about it for the most part, even joking about knocking out Strickland in the name of China. However, when the video of him donning the Five-Star Red Flag initially emerged, Adesanya did provide a clarification. While he did not address the exact video, even though he played it, Adesanya explained that he used to star in Chinese ads as a side hustle. 'The Last Stylebender' said:

“I grabbed a random baby. and when they came off the hook, I grabbed it off from the dad. so I’m like the thing goes, My Family in China blah blah blah.. it looks like I’m like part of this Chinese man, and I’m grabbing the baby...I feel like it’s just kind of funny, I see some of it not too much of it but some of it, and I’m like.. ahh that’s right. but aye man, I made money.”

Catch Israel Adesanya's comments below: