Paul Felder: David Goggins can help Israel Adesanya find next level of commitment and grit

USA Today

25-04-2025

Paul Felder: David Goggins can help Israel Adesanya find next level of commitment and grit
Paul Felder sees David Goggins having a positive impact on Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) has recently spent time training with former Navy SEAL Goggins, who put him through the trenches in a workout that resulted in the former UFC middleweight champion throwing up.
With Adesanya currently on a three-fight losing skid, Felder thinks Goggins can reignite the fire in "The Stylebender."
"Depending on what you're using it for, this could be a great thing for him," Felder said on the "Believe You Me" podcast. "Because if it's just to get your ass back in gear, get you motivated, and maybe push yourself to another level that you're not quite getting just doing your basic, everyday gym training, and you want to just kind of find out who you are, Goggins is the guy to pull that out of you.
'He's just going to torture you. He's going to make you find another level down there. And with somebody like Izzy, who's shown that he's still got the skills, whereas Tony (Ferguson), I see why that might have been something they were trying to pair up with each other to try to dig him out of the trenches, but I think he's just too far gone physically and in so many other ways, where (Goggins) wasn't able to really make him successful."
Goggins' work with Tony Ferguson may have not yielded results, but his work with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones prior to his fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 certainly did.
"Jones, I could see why Jon would want a guy like that around, a guy who maybe slips off and loses discipline," Felder said. "And Izzy maybe is having the same issues where he just needs to find that next level of commitment and grit more importantly."
Adesanya is coming off a TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night 250 in February. He recently caught the itch to compete again, and wants to avenge his loss to Sean Strickland, who dethroned him to become middleweight champion at UFC 293.