Israel Adesanya achieved a monumental victory at UFC 287 by winning the UFC middleweight championship, knocking out Alex Pereira in the second round of the main event. This win was especially significant for Adesanya because he finally conquered his long-time adversary and earned his first victory over Pereira in four attempts.

What makes this feat even more impressive is the fact that less than two weeks before the event, Adesanya suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear during training. During a recent YouTube video he posted, Adesanya showed footage of the incident and discussed how he managed to overcome the injury and secure his win at the event.

Adesanya talked about how he had previously faced adversity – sustaining right ankle injury mere weeks before his UFC debut, and another knee injury three weeks before Madison Square Gardens’ event – but overcame those injury setbacks to achieve success. Thereby, he adapted this same perspective towards his recent injury and confidently locked it in by revising his perspective: “This has happened. This is my perspective. This was meant to happen. I’ll overcome this.”

Adesanya intends to next face Dricus du Plessis, and while the two have had a heated exchange of words, Adesanya maintains that this fight needs to happen. The South African fighter has walked back some of his earlier comments but it appears the two have an intense dislike that is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.

Despite this, Adesanya still wants to fight du Plessis on African soil, and he is confident he will be victorious. Du Plessis needs to come out the victor in his upcoming fight against Robert Whittaker if he hopes to face Adesanya in the octagon.