Israel Adesanya explains why he turned down coaching TUF opposite Darren Till

Israel Adesanya had an opportunity to coach The Ultimate Fighter but the middleweight champ said no.

When Dana White and the UFC announced TUF would be coming back many were eager to see who the coaches would be. It ultimately ended up being Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega. Yet, according to Adesanya, he was offered to coach the show against Till but he said no for a couple of reasons.

“I’ll tell you one thing, there’s a new season of TUF with my boy, Alex Volkanovski, coaching it, it’s gonna be dope, I think, it’s already, I think episode three is already coming out this week,” Adesanya said on a podcast with Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh on Tuesday. “They did, breaking news, leaked, it got offered to me and Darren Till, and instantly I said, no. Personally, I don’t want cameras in my face that much and I don’t want to be stuck in (Las) Vegas for that long.

“I mean, what does it take to make good reality tv? Drama, a lot of drama and I’m a troll, Darren’s a troll,” Adesanya continued. “I feel like I would have to go to the lowest form of myself. The pranks that they’d play, I could go lower. And people don’t understand like, I take the high road a lot, but when it’s time to go low, limbo.”

There is no question if Adesanya and Till had coached TUF it would’ve been must-see TV. They would’ve had an awesome back-and-forth and pranks played against one another but it didn’t come to fruition. Yet, both Adesanya and Till have made it known they will fight each other one day. When they do, the lead-up will be full of trash talk and banter.

Do you wish the coaches of TUF 29 would’ve been Israel Adesanya and Darren Till?