Israel Adesanya recently did a meet and greet with fans for Engage Industry products at Rebel Sports in Auckland, New Zealand. The former UFC middleweight champion was also joined by his City Kickboxing teammates Dan Hooker and Kai Kara-France.
Adesanya, who is a strong believer in chakras (centres of spiritual power in the human body), was gifted a flourite ball by a fan who claimed that it heals all seven chakras of a human being.
The fan proclaimed himself as the ‘Emerald Dragon’ while addressing the former UFC champion by his chinese nickname of ‘Black Dragon’. The fan told Adesanya:
“I know you’re the Black Dragon. I’m the Emerald Dragon…It’s a glow in the dark flourite. It heals the seven chakras. I know you are all about that. So get that balance back, get that title back.”
Adesanya was also happy to have made it to the meet and greet after being at Kendrick Lamar’s concert in Auckland the night before. Hailing ‘K-Dot’ as the G.O.A.T., ‘Stylebender’ said:
“I was surprised how I handled it. ‘Cause I went to Kendrick last night. K-Dot, the man, the GOAT, the guy was unbelieveable.”
Watch Israel Adesanya’s interaction with the fan below:
Israel Adesanya uses anime signs to channel his chakras
Israel Adesanya admittedly is an anime nerd, a trait that is often displayed by the former champ through hand signs in his walkouts and even during the final seconds before a fight. ‘The Last Stylebender’ famously claimed to have written a ‘death-note’ for Robert Whittaker after dethroning ‘Bobby Knuckles’ in front of his home fans at UFC 243 in 2019.
Adesanya did not shy away from his affiliation with MMA even before he became the star that he is today. ‘The Last Stylebender’ was just two fights old in the UFC when he asserted that his hand signs were the means to channel his inner chakra. The Kiwi said in the lead-up to his TUF Finale clash against Brad Tavares:
“To everyone that keeps saying that my hand signs are fake. Look, I’ve been drilling these for a long time. These are not fake hand signs, these are for weeaboos, all the anime nerds, you don’t understand. It’s for my chakra, to infuse them and make sure that I can channel it in that moment. To infuse them. To make sure I can channel it.”
Watch Adesanya’s comments below (3:20):