Israel Adesanya's Bold Move to Freestyle MMA in Sydney
Israel Adesanya has chosen his next corner. And it’s a long way from Auckland.
The former UFC middleweight champion has set up shop in Sydney, linking with Alexander Volkanovski’s Freestyle MMA Performance Centre in what shapes as the defining gamble of the late prime of his career.
A New Room, A New Reality
The first signs came not in a press conference, but in training clips.
Footage posted by Engage, the combat sports brand tied to both Adesanya and Volkanovski, showed Adesanya walking into Freestyle MMA, gloves on, eyes forward, stepping into the featherweight champion’s home base. Another video, this time from rising lightweight Mauricio Ruffy, captured the Brazilian running drills alongside Adesanya, confirming the move in the most modern way possible: a few seconds of sweat on social media.
This isn’t a quick guest appearance. It looks like a relocation.
Freestyle MMA, coached by Joe Lopez, now appears to be Adesanya’s new hub, at least for the coming stretch. The mats were crowded with familiar faces from Bangtao MMA in Thailand as well, with recently retired UFC fighter Brad Riddell and coach George Hickman visible in coaching roles. The network that helped build Adesanya in Oceania and Southeast Asia hasn’t vanished. It has simply reformed in a different city, under a different roof.
Leaving Home
The move comes just two months after Adesanya’s emotional announcement that he was leaving City Kickboxing, the gym in New Zealand where he rose from kickboxing standout to UFC superstar.
He revealed the split on his YouTube channel, calling it a new chapter after a bruising period in his career. “It’s bittersweet, but it’s the right thing for me, especially where I’m at in my career,” he said, framing the decision as painful but necessary.
The numbers underline why he felt change was unavoidable. Adesanya is riding a four-fight losing streak. His last win dates back to April 2023, when he spectacularly knocked out Alex Pereira at UFC 287 to reclaim the middleweight belt. Since then, the momentum has drained away. His March loss to Joe Pyfer at UFC Fight Night 271 appears to have been the final push that sent him out of his long-time home and into the unknown.
City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman has not stood in his way. Quite the opposite. In a statement to “She Loves the Gloves” on Medium, Bareman backed the move, saying change can act as a spark for renewed success. He stressed that the gym wishes Adesanya well and that the door at CKB remains open, calling him forever part of their family.
The split, then, is not a public divorce. It’s a career reset.
In Camp Without a Fight
What makes this shift especially intriguing is the timing.
Volkanovski and Ruffy are already deep in camp for high-stakes fights. Adesanya is not booked. Yet he is there, grinding alongside them.
Volkanovski is preparing to defend his featherweight crown against Movsar Evloev at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on October 24, a matchup that pits the champion’s relentless pace and craft against one of the division’s most suffocating wrestlers. Ruffy, meanwhile, is tuning up for a potential No. 1 contender bout with Arman Tsarukyan in the co-main event of UFC 331 on September 19, a pivotal test in one of the UFC’s most unforgiving divisions.
Into that intensity walks Adesanya. No date. No opponent. Just rounds.
His presence adds another layer to an already charged room. The former middleweight king now moves through drills with an active champion and a surging contender, matching their urgency even without a contract signed. Recently, his nutritionist stoked speculation by posting about a “full day of eating in camp,” a phrase that doesn’t get used casually in this sport. It suggests structure. It suggests purpose. It suggests a comeback is closer than anyone is ready to admit publicly.
Bridging Two Worlds
There is symbolism in the choice of gym.
Volkanovski has long been a frequent visitor to City Kickboxing, blending his Freestyle MMA base with extended stints in Auckland. Now Adesanya has flipped the script, crossing the Tasman in the opposite direction. The move to Freestyle MMA doesn’t just give him a new home; it tightens the bond between two of the most influential camps in the southern hemisphere.
For Adesanya, the appeal is obvious. He has spoken about needing “focused, individual training” at this stage of his career. At Freestyle, he can plug into a smaller, champion-driven environment, with Lopez, Volkanovski, and the Bangtao coaches all offering different looks and voices. The room is elite but not overcrowded. The attention is sharp. The feedback is direct.
After four straight losses, that is exactly the kind of setting a former champion often seeks: fewer distractions, more accountability, and a daily reminder of what it takes to stay on top, not just get there.
The Stakes of Reinvention
This is not a prospect quietly building in the shadows. This is a former star trying to stop a slide before it defines him.
The decision to leave City Kickboxing, the gym that helped make him a global name, and to embed himself in Volkanovski’s world, is as big a statement as any callout on the microphone. It says he is not content to fade out on familiar mats, surrounded by old routines and old habits. It says he is willing to be the one who has to adjust, to listen, to change.
Whether this shift ends his losing streak is a question only the cage can answer. For now, the evidence is simple: new city, new coaches, new training partners, and the same man trying to claw his way back to the win column.
The next time Israel Adesanya walks into an arena, the walkout will look the same. The real difference will have been forged in a Sydney gym, far from the place where his legend was born.
