UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya training in his hotel room in Abu Dhabi ahead of his title defence against Paulo Costa at UFC 253, which opens Fight Island 2 in the capital on Sept 27. Credit: Jeff Sainlar - EMG
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya training in his hotel room in Abu Dhabi ahead of his title defence against Paulo Costa at UFC 253, which opens Fight Island 2 in the capital on Sept 27. CrediShow more

UFC 253: Israel Adesanya 'practicing patience' ahead of Paulo Costa showdown



For Israel Adesanya, what from the outside seemed a perfectly cordial chance meet with Paulo Costa at their hotel only cemented what he feels inside.

Chiefly, that come Sunday, his opponent will crumble under the lights in Abu Dhabi.

"I kind of expected it a little bit," Adesanya tells The National of the run-in, sent out across social media this weekend, when the pair bumped into one another and shared a joke about Costa's weight.

Perhaps, though, it wasn't so genial, after all.

"I could sense it,” Adesanya says. “I put up a story on my Instagram and it showed you what really happened. He walked by me, I stared him down and he goes, ‘You good’, and I replied, ‘I’m great’. He said something and I doubled back and I went over there to size him up.

“I had he and his manager giggling like little girls. I gave him an opportunity to say what he really wanted to say. It just confirmed what I already knew: without no crowd, without no TV cameras, he doesn’t keep the same energy. I do."

In a protracted and often profane build-up to the headline act at UFC 253, a middleweight title bout that kicks off Fight Island 2, the mental warfare continues.

“He submitted to me," Adesanya, the current champion, says. "It confirmed to me that he’s my son; I son-ed him. And I had them, ‘Hey we’ll be nice, we’ll be nice’ as I approached them.

“I shook his hand, tapped him on the shoulder – all these things are a strategy because I was feeling him out, seeing the pressure of his handshake. And I could see that he’s not about that life.”

Recounting the story from his hotel room at the W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island, less than six days out from another mighty test in a thus-far meteoric rise through the UFC, Adesanya is playing it as cool as a desert night.

Some say Costa represents the greatest challenge to his unbeaten record, built latterly in Adesanya’s two and a half years in the promotion. Yet, outwardly at least, he doesn’t seem too perturbed.

“I’m practicing patience,” he says. “There’s no point in getting excited. That’s why when I saw him, I wanted him to feel me so I rocked up to him, doubled back to him.

“I was hoping he’d do something, because he’s been the one beating his chest at every fight of mine. I wanted to see if he kept the same energy, but he didn’t. So I stayed cool, calm and collected. Like the killer that I am.”

Adesanya's CV certainly speaks to that. Having carved a stellar career in kickboxing – he won 75 of his 80 bouts through China, New Zealand and beyond – the Nigerian-born athlete joined the UFC in December 2017 and, within two months, had a debut victory.

Eight more wins have followed. Achievements have flown with the time: interim champion; 2019’s Fight of the Year, against Kevin Gastelum; four Performance of the Night bonuses. He has seen off six top-15 fighters.

Last October, Adesanya took out then-champion Robert Whittaker in spectacular fashion in front of 60,000-plus in Melbourne. Still, and with typical belt-holder bravado, he stresses he hasn’t exceeded his own expectations.

“Not even close,” Adesanya says. “I feel like I’m almost halfway to what I’m achieving in this game, when I’m talking about legacy-wise. But there’s still a long way to go.”

Sunday's showdown with Costa is another step towards that. The clash brings together two undefeated fighters – Adesanya stands at 19-0 in professional mixed martial arts, Costa 13-0 – only the second time in UFC history that unbeaten rivals face off for the title. That only other one was in 2009.

Little wonder, then, that UFC president Dana White has declared this will be Fight of the Year in an already memorable 2020, both inside and outside the octagon.

Adesanya, though, doesn’t necessarily agree.

“To be honest, his toughness is probably what’s going to make it fight of the year, if he can somehow withstand the beating I’m going to put on him," he says. "But I don’t think he can. I don’t think his gas tank will let him. That’s why I don’t really think it’s going to be fight of the year. But it’s going be a domination of the year and knockout of the year.

“[His style] is tailor made for me. I just watched '[UFC 253] Countdown' this morning and I can he has a whole team around him, just a bunch of ‘Yes men’ around him.

“He hasn’t been – I hate this word so much because people try to use it about me – humbled properly. Like I have with my teammates, my killers that I work with. Every single day is a struggle, especially with this lockdown that we had at the gym, because everybody was levelling up. So I just don’t see it going past the fourth round.”

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

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Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

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The story of Edge

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.

It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.

Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.

Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab

 

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Lamsa

Founder: Badr Ward

Launched: 2014

Employees: 60

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: EdTech

Funding to date: $15 million

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Donating your hair

    •    Your hair should be least 30 cms long, as some of the hair is lost during manufacturing of the wigs.
    •    Clean, dry hair in good condition (no split ends) from any gender, and of any natural colour, is required.
    •    Straight, wavy, curly, permed or chemically straightened is permitted.
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Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Family reunited

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.

She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.

She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.

The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.

She was held in her native country a year later.

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months