UFC superstar Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya has been busy snapping necks and cashing checks. How much money does he make per fight? What’s his net worth? And how’s he spending all those bonuses? Read on.
Israel Adesanya was born in Nigeria on July 22, 1989. (He now lives in Auckland, New Zealand.) His dad’s an accountant and his mom is a nurse. He has four brothers and sisters.
In grade school he started doing Taekwondo, but had to stop because he got injured. As he got older, he was more interested in Japanese anime and choreographed dancing than sports.
After being bullied throughout high school, Israel decided to seriously pursue mixed martial arts.
When he was 18, he watched a movie called Ong-Bak, which was about a Muay Thai fighter. This inspired Israel to begin training in kickboxing. He would go on to accumulate a perfect 32–0 amateur kickboxing record.
When he turned 21, that’s when he moved to Auckland, New Zealand. There, he linked up with head trainer Eugene Bareman at a gym called City Kickboxing. Fellow UFC fighters Dan Hooker and Alexander Volkanovski also happened to train there.
Clearly, iron sharpens iron. Israel Adesanya has built quite the fighting resume. As a pro boxer, he’s 5–1. His kickboxing record is 75–5. And his MMA record (at the time of writing this) is 19–0 with 14 knockouts.
His nickname, “The Last Stylebender,” came from an anime cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Adesanya actually has one of the characters tatted on his forearm.
Israel Adesanya’s UFC income
For Israel’s first UFC fight, back in early-2018, he made just $50,000. Today, he has more than 10X’d that—pocketing $500k for his fight with Yoel Romero. In his first two years with the UFC, he also made an extra $461,000 in performance bonuses.
Adesanya also makes money from sponsorship deals with companies like Manscaped, BlessedCBD, Engage Fightwear and even Puma.
All told, Israel Adesanya’s net worth is $3.5 million dollars, and rising fast.
His biggest splurge so far? After beating Robert Whittaker, he bought a 2019 orange McLaren 720s Spider for a cool $650k.
Stylebender’s sexy supercar
Adesanya said he’d always envisioned driving a matte black Lamborghini Aventador one day, but after test driving one, he realized he was too big for it. To avoid neck cramps, he settled on the slightly-roomier McLaren.
I wonder which supercar he’ll treat himself to now that he just dusted Paulo Costa and picked up a total of $690k for his handiwork. Stay tuned.
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