IsraelAdesanya

Nigeria gave him his birthplace and New Zealand his nationality, and Israel Adesanya turned that combination into a following that stretches well past either country. In the UFC's middleweight division, fans across Africa and Oceania could claim a contender of their own, and the wider mixed martial arts audience followed. City Kickboxing, the gym behind him, sits at the centre of that story, and the pull from two continents is what marks out his place in the sport.

The MMA ledger shows 24 victories against 6 defeats, and 16 of them ended by knockout, so his fights have tended to finish before the scorecards decide anything. Middleweight is the division where that work has been done, and City Kickboxing is the camp behind it. At thirty-seven, he is still an active UFC middleweight rather than a name recalled from earlier years.