Rare footage of Israel Adesanya's emotional reaction to his UFC debut has emerged and it shows how much it meant to him.
'The Last Stylebender' made his debut two years ago against Rob Wilkinson and won via TKO.
Footage of the current middleweight champion immediately after the fight has been unearthed and he discusses the special moment.
"Okay, you gotta see me now," Adesanya begins with.
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"F**k, there's a lot of emotion, a lot of energy.
"F**k 'em, I'm a man and I feel 'em myself."
Adesanya also responded to the clip on social media and said 'we've come a long way'.
He then goes on to state that he 'finished the promise' in terms of stepping into the octagon.
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Adesanya's close friend and trainer Jamie 'VDK' van der Kuijl suddenly passed in 2015 and the 30-year-old also pays tribute to him.
"Made a promise to my boy, 'VDK'.
"We told him, when he passed, [Eugene] said I made a promise to him and you did too so we gotta bring him here, he's here with us now I can feel him."
He then goes on to discuss the immediate aftermath of his friend's passing.
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"On the night he died we were at the gym, last ones at the gym we were just there for hours feeling him.
"Before he [points behind him] left I closed the gym up and he's like 'We made a promise, wherever we go we take him and we're going to take him to the UFC.
"And we f**king made it."
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Adesanya will defend his middleweight title against Yoel Romero at UFC 248 on Saturday night.
The duo partook in a bizarre dance-off during their press conference last month and Romero discussed the fight on Monday's Ariel Helwani Show.
"You know what I do? Training, that's the difference," Romero said.
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"I have time for training camp. That's it. There's no excuses. The two times I missed weight, I tried to [make weight], but I know I can do it. ... I don't think about my weight for the fight. I'm thinking about the time for training camp. You need to lose your weight in training camp."
Who do you think will win on Saturday night?
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Featured Image Credit: UFCTopics:Β UFC News, Ariel Helwani, UFC, MMA, Israel Adesanya