Israel Adesanya Says New Camp Has Brought the Fun Back After CKB Split

Israel Adesanya sounds like a fighter enjoying camp again.

In a training vlog posted Thursday, the former UFC middleweight champion said the smaller team he assembled after leaving City Kickboxing has given him his best camp in years. The change comes while Adesanya is trying to stop a four-fight losing streak, the longest of his professional career.

"With my departure from my old gym, CKB, and now building the team that I have and training specifically for me, this is the best I've felt in a very long time," Adesanya said on his official YouTube channel. "For real."

He was even more direct about the mood around the work: "This is the most fun training camp I've had in years. That's going to show on fight night."

A camp built around one fighter

The vlog shows a deliberately small operation. Andrei Paulet is leading the camp, Bill Smart is handling strength and conditioning, and Byron Chivers is working with Adesanya on grappling at Unity MMA. The sessions move through hill sprints, battle ropes, swimming, position-specific ground work and cage sparring.

Adesanya's point was not that a big team cannot work. City Kickboxing helped him become a two-time UFC champion and was home to several elite fighters at once. His new arrangement is different because every part of the schedule is being built around one athlete.

That is a meaningful change after losses to Sean Strickland, Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov and Joe Pyfer. The defeats did not all look the same. Strickland beat him over five rounds, Du Plessis submitted him, and Imavov and Pyfer stopped him with strikes. A new camp does not offer one simple repair for four different fights, but it gives Adesanya room to decide exactly what needs attention.

He owned part of the breakup

The most revealing section of the video came after training. Adesanya looked back at his years with CKB and admitted he could have handled some relationships better.

"I could have been a better teammate," he said, adding that he could have built stronger bonds with some people he trained beside for years.

He did not turn the reflection into a clean apology or a public reconciliation. Adesanya said he has taken responsibility for his own mistakes, then challenged coaches and others around him to do the same. His message was blunt: look in the mirror, know what went wrong and be better.

That matters because his departure from CKB was described as bittersweet when it became public, but the full reason for the split was never laid out. The latest video adds context without pretending every disagreement has been settled. Adesanya believes he needed a structure where he could not hide behind anyone else, and he also believes responsibility should run both ways.

The result still has to follow

Training-camp optimism is impossible to score before the cage door closes. Fighters regularly call a camp their best, and Adesanya acknowledged the cliche himself before making the claim.

There are still concrete reasons to pay attention. He is coming off four losses, has changed the people and structure around his preparation, and is speaking with more detail than a standard "best shape of my life" interview. The vlog shows what the new setup looks like and where the work is going.

It does not prove the losing streak is over. Adesanya's timing, defense and decision-making will have to hold up against an opponent under real pressure. The video also did not include a formal bout announcement, so any reported opponent or date remains separate from what Adesanya confirmed himself.

For now, the change is clear: a smaller group, sessions tailored to him and a fighter who says he has rediscovered the fun in camp. After four straight defeats, that is a useful starting point. The next performance will show whether it was the right reset.