Israel Adesanya is one of the UFC’s most accomplished and dominant fighters, but how tough will he be and how far will he push when he goes up against some hella spicy wings?
The five-time middle-weight champion Israel Adesanya is the second Kiwi to bravely take on Sean Evan’s ‘Hot Ones’ YouTube challenge after Lorde appeared in an episode back in 2021.
He chowed down on the 10 “wings of death” while talking about fighting, New Zealand and how thankful he is for his UFC career so far.
Going into the challenge, Adesanya revealed that his nerves were calm although he was worried about some minor cuts under his tongue.
Adesanya said at the start of the episode that filming took place two days after his UFC 281 loss to Alex Pereira and that he was worried about eating the spicy food.
Despite the loss, it seems he is doing just fine and spoke about how grateful he is for the moments when he looks around and sees a lot of Kiwis and other people from back home.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity, grateful for the life I live… You just have to be grateful for everything, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Everything.”
Host Sean Evans is fascinated by New Zealand’s ‘King in the Ring’ event and asks Adesanya to pull back the curtain on what the event is like from a fighter's perspective.
“When you do King in the Ring, after the fight you get an adrenaline dump, so I’m glad I had people in my corner like [kickboxing coach] Doug Viney.”
Adesanya went on to share the best piece of advice his coach gave him which has stuck with him over the years.
“You only have one fight, because if you don’t get that fight done, those other fights don’t exist.”
Adesanya successfully made his way through all 10 of the “wings of death.” It wasn’t until the seventh wing that he needed some milk to ease the heat. Of course, No. 8 hot sauce Da Bomb Beyond Insanity got him good, though - that sauce truly sounds like horror.
