Israel Adesanya Rejected 4 Movie Offers Including ‘Black Panther’ To Focus On Greatest UFC Rival
Israel Adesanya has finally revealed the names of the movies he could’ve been in.
Even after three-straight losses to the best fighters in the world, Israel Adesanya is still one of the UFC’s biggest superstars and also one of the most active champions in recent memory.
His life story a literal movie titled ‘Stylebender’ (2023), the hall of fame worthy Adesanya put a career in acting on hold when he was the reigning UFC middleweight champion of the world.
In the lead-up to his legendary grudge match with longtime kickboxing rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281, Adesanya said he turned down four different movie offers to focus on being champion.
Now, we know what three out of the four are.
Israel Adesanya turned down movie offers from the ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Creed’ franchises before Alex Pereira fight
In Nov. 2022, days before his title loss to Pereira at Madison Square Garden, Adesanya told me he turned down an acting role in Michael B. Jordan’s ‘Creed III’ (2023), the latest installment in the ‘Creed’ franchise and ‘Rocky’ universe.
The two-time champion said the boxing film was the fourth movie he had to say no to.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Adesanya also confirmed he rejected roles in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ (2022) and ‘Creed II’ (2018).
“While I’m fighting, if I decide to take, I don’t know, three months to go film a film. It would f— my [schedule] up,” Adesanya said of acting (h/t: Home of Fight).
“While I was, especially on top, champion, [I wanted to keep] defending my belt.
“I was like, nah…
“I had options for Black Panther 2,” Adesanya continued.
“Creed 2 as well, that was another one. I turned it down.”
“It was not because I didn’t wanna do it. I just knew I had to focus on the task at hand,” Adesanya said.
Israel Adesanya made his voice acting debut in Baki Hanma
When it comes to acting on the big screen, Adesanya has said a future in Hollywood is ‘always gonna be there’.
In 2021, ‘The Last Stylebender’ took up voice acting with his first gig in ‘Baki Hanma’—the sequel to the popular combat sports anime ‘Baki’.
Adesanya voiced Chamomile Lessen, a key character in the anime’s first season on Netflix.
Adesanya, 35, is coming off back-to-back title fight losses to Sean Strickland and the champion Dricus du Plessis, as well as a KO defeat to #1 contender Nassourdine Imavov in February.
Bloody Elbow
