In kickboxing, he is the former Glory middleweight contender winner and King in the Ring two-time cruiserweight and heavyweight champion. As of 29 September , he is 3 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. Adesanya was born in Lagos, Nigeria , the eldest of five children.
Adesanya is multilingual. He is fluent in Yoruba , Nigerian Pidgin and English. In May , Adesanya won the first fight of his seven fight winning streak, defeating Tim Atonio by unanimous decision.
He won his next six fights, fighting almost exclusively with Wu Lin Feng. His winning streak earned him a place in the Kunlun Fight 80kg tournament, held during Kunlun Fight 2. He lost the semifinal bout against Simon Marcus by an extra round split decision. Verlinden won the fight by unanimous decision. Six months later, he took part in the Cruiserweights III tournament. He scored technical knockouts of Kim Loudon and Mark Timms in the quarterfinal and semifinal bouts respectively, before winning the tournament for the second time with a first round knockout of Pati Afoa.
The two of them had previously met in the final of the Cruiserweight tournament. Adesanya won the tournament final by unanimous decision. Adesanya won five of his next six fights, including victories over Yousri Belgaroui [38] and Bogdan Stoica. Adesanya participated in the Glory Middleweight Contender Tournament. He defeated Robert Thomas by unanimous decision in the semifinals, and won the tournament with a split decision victory over Yousri Belgaroui.
Wilnis won the fight by unanimous decision, although the result was considered controversial. His last kickboxing fight, before transitioning to mixed martial arts , was a rematch with Alex Pereira at Glory of Heroes 7.
