Israel Adesanya has explained how advice from boxing legend Mike Tyson caused him to have a "paradigm shift" in his views on fame.
The UFC middleweight champion is considered one of the sport's biggest stars after making four defences of his 185lb title. Adesanya recently spent time with legendary heavyweight Mike Tyson while filming for an episode of the 55-year-old's HotBoxin' podcast.
Adesanya revealed he was not a fan of the term "role model" and felt it put added pressure on his fighting career. "There's kids out there that I know personally and I know their dad," Adesanya said during the episode of the podcast with Tyson. "These kids who go to my gym, they look up to me. They really appreciate me.
"Their dad allows them to watch me with the way I carry myself and the way I speak and express myself. To them, I'm a role model. For me, I never want to let them down. I never want them to hang their head in shame."
Tyson quickly chimed in to praise the Nigerian star: "You want to know why you feel like that? It's because you feel like you're not worthy of that. In your heart, you feel you're not worthy of being a role model... Who did you look up to and it made you wanna be a fighter?
"['Izzy' said Anderson Silva] Well there you go... What's your definition of fake? Saying something to somebody and doing something else? You're not doing that. Why are you worrying about being a bad role model? You're not doing that."
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Adesanya later produced a piece reviewing the footage from the podcast on his YouTube channel, explaining how Tyson's advice helped him have a new outlook on his rise to stardom. "I love talking about life and other things," Adesanya said after the podcast. If you give me new information I am able to change my mind and he did that with a paradigm shift on what he said about being a role model to these kids.
"And I was like 'yeah I am not faking it I am not being a model of behaviour'. That was my favourite moment because it made me think and I love that."
'Style Bender' recently confirmed he will defend his middleweight title against Jarod Cannonier this summer at UFC 276. His next outing will be the second under his lucrative new deal with the promotion after defending his belt against Robert Whittaker earlier this year.
