Mumbehind inspiration

Israel Adesanya has revealed it wasn’t his own idea to donate PPE equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

And the unbeaten UFC megastar is only too happy to tell the story of the inspiration behind his charitable gesture.

Adesanya’s mother Tai works at Whanganui Hospital and he has revealed he begged her to stop working during the early stages of the pandemic.

UFC’S middleweight champion paid for 10,000 masks and 1000 face shields to be supplied to the Whanganui District Health Board back in April.

‘‘She was just telling me what was happening behind the scenes and it just made sense that I should help because I could afford to,’’ Adesanya told

Stuff.

‘‘It was her idea really. So credit to my mum for coming up with the idea.’’

Adesanya, who said his mother took a short break from work before returning, said his personal connection to frontline health workers meant he wanted to make sure all health workers had more than enough PPE gear at their disposal during the pandemic.

Adesanya spent much of his youth in Whanganui before moving to Auckland to train at the City Kickboxing gym where he continues to base his training from under his head trainer Eugene Bareman.

He also said it was a massive relief for all New Zealanders working in health care and their families that the Covid-19 infection rate had been well contained in this country.

Adesanya, who was named Sportsman of the Year at the Halberg Awards in February, said the personal attachment to Covid-19 through his mother working on the frontline of the health sector put the sports shutdown in perspective.

Adesanya returned to New Zealand immediately after his victory over Yoel Romero at UFC 248 in Las Vegas in early March when the Covid-19 pandemic was just starting to shut the sporting world down.

He hopes to fight as soon as August, possibly on Dana White’s ‘Fight Island’.

If Adesanya gets his way, his next title defence will be against Brazilian Paulo Costa.

‘‘She was just telling me what was happening behind the scenes and it just made sense that I should help because I could afford to.’’

Israel Adesanya