‘I’ve Never Seen Anyone Do That’: How Israel Adesanya’s ‘Vulnerability’ Shaped Soundtrack to Doc on UFC Legend

Joy swept over composer Arli Liberman‘s face when he was asked by director Zoe McIntosh to create a score to accompany a documentary on Israel Adesanya. Titled Stylebender, the film digs deep into Adesanya’s state of mind as a world renowned athlete, tracking vulnerable moments as he balances intense fame, the loss of a close friend, his relationship with his coach, and the multifaceted disciplines it takes to rise to the top of UFC. 

Filmed over a five-year period, Stylebender weaves darker moments of deep self-reflection with lighter, goofy moments where viewers get an insight into Adesanya’s softer side while understanding the mental fortitude his sport requires. 

By merging fight footage and home videos of Adesanya as a young boy with never before seen moments from behind the scenes as he prepares for some of the biggest events in his career, viewers are shown the man behind the fighter in his rawest form. 

Liberman’s job was to come up with music that could support in telling Adesanya’s story as it played out on screen. 

Already a fan, Liberman was excited at the prospect of working on a project that could both challenge his own creativity and highlight the lesser-known characteristics of the documentary’s star.

With guidance from McIntosh, it was decided that there should be emphasis on the toll Adesanya’s intense career takes on his body and mind to be among the best in the world. 

“[…] one of the biggest, powerful reflections is the vulnerability that he [Adesanya] allows to be shown in the film,” Liberman tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ. 

“Izzy is a very transparent character and when you’re looking at him, exploring the web, what you see is what you get, but he has to put a guard to protect himself and to also play with his opponent’s head. But you see in the film a level of vulnerability that you usually don’t see from top level athletes – they don’t show those scars. He’s just so brave and powerful, and the vulnerability blew me away.”

Among the more emotionally-driven sequences are fragile moments of Adesanya acknowledging criticism and responding to brutal trash talk between fighters.

In one example, ominous yet delicate tones sit beneath a scene where Adesanya is seen looking through his phone as a stream of negative comments are shown in a graphic on screen. “The music just sits there and creates the tone and environment we’re trying to portray,” Liberman explains. 

One of the key ways to showcase the real Adesanya was the pair getting together in Liberman’s studio in West Auckland.

“He used my voice to make sounds, he used my voice to make beats, to make melodies, and it was unique, I’ve never seen anyone do that with my voice,” Adesanya tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ.

“I can’t sing, well, not very well. I wouldn’t dare try to sing in front of people for entertainment, but the way he made my voice sound for certain bits of the movie to convey those emotions in those scenes, it’s obviously genius.”

They sat together through multiple sessions, allowing Liberman to not only share his sonic vision but bring Adesanya on board by recording the samples used throughout Stylebender. 

“Every single piece is either dominated by his voice, or it has two or three layers of his voice in there,” Liberman reveals. “I was listening to Izzy speaking a lot and I was really compelled by the timbre of his voice and the way he was talking. He’s got a really beautiful speaking voice when he’s doing those one on one interviews.” 

A friendship quickly forged between the pair, with their bond enabling Liberman to see for himself Adesanya’s strengths and quirks as he established a pallet of sounds which he felt accurately reflected the mixed martial artist. 

Born in Nigeria, Adesayna relocated with his family to New Zealand as a child where he grappled with a sense of not fitting in, contending with racism and testing times of uncertainty. He was just 18 when he discovered kickboxing – within two years, he was embarking on a professional career. 

Under the training and guidance of Eugene Bareman, support from the City Kickboxing family and boundless acceptance from his parents, he quickly made his mark as a force to be reckoned with.  

When he was approached about making a documentary in 2019, it took only one meeting with McIntosh and a producer over dinner for him to say “I’m in.”

“I liked her vision,” Adesanya says. “I wasn’t even apprehensive. I liked the way she spoke about what she wanted to show with this movie.”

With production kicking off only two years into Adesanya’s UFC career, Liberman was involved from the earliest stages.

“If we have a normal drama, we would have a script and I can create a bond with the story that is not reliant on the imagery. It relies on the actual story so I can tell that story just sonically, but here you’re at the mercy of real characters,” he explains.

“I felt like my personal biggest challenge was cultivating those moments and then waiting until we had a locked picture so we could sculpt the sonic journey, but for me I find documentaries the most stressful to write music to, because of the lack of not knowing. It’s like jumping into a black hole, but it did bring something very special with the collaboration of Izzy. 

“I just had such a blast creating all of those moments without the pressure of speaking to the pictures. It made me realise the first reaction is usually the right one. I think that was one of the biggest lessons I learned.”

Working together in the studio, Liberman recorded a key sound associated with Adesanya’s daily life. 

“I got him to hit the punching bag and give me a really deliberate percussive sound effect… then I tried to create this rhythmical, electronica eco-system made out of his voice, and more of a percussive one that I made out of his punches and hits, so I basically created the vast majority of the whole score out of that,” Liberman says. 

“I was just so impressed by how fearless he was artistically and how he liked to surrender, he didn’t mind being in the weird zone, he was happy to jump on the ride and just let it happen.

“I think the majority of us don’t realise [it’s] not just dedication and discipline, the hard work, it’s just allowing yourself to think differently and allowing yourself to embrace your difference and your weirdness to actually be you. 

“He’s incredibly genuine and when we were working together, I’d say to him, ‘Hey, can you do that, or can you do that, can you say this, can you say that,’ and he was just going for it and he was just doing whatever was asked. There was never a moment of him saying, ‘I’m not sure about that,’ he was just going for it and he just fully understood it.”

Arguably the most significant of Liberman’s contributions is the uplifting track “State of Mind”, which pounces out of nowhere toward the film’s ending to form a full circle moment. 

“The reason it’s called ‘State of Mind’ is because that’s the sample I took from Izzy – I used the words ‘State of Mind’ and then I sampled that and I used that in the track,” Liberman reveals. 

The track complements the sum of Adesanya’s whirlwind journey as he trains among his crew of impressive fighters at the former City Kickboxing headquarters, with his trainer Eugene delivering some of life’s precious values as he proudly watches on. 

Alongside Adesanya’s voice is embedded into the track, there’s a double bass clarinet, a Turkish yaylı tambur (a long-necked plucked string instrument), the cello, and drums. It also importantly nods to Adesanya’s heritage with vocals from D. Matthews, a Nigerian singer who lives in Aotearoa. 

“The fact he even got D. Matthews, who understands the story as an immigrant, to get on there and sing, and sing Yoruba as well – they worked well together, I think it’s a powerful moment,” Adesanya says. 

“It’s uplifting and I understand what he’s saying, not just through the words or the language, but through the vibes, I feel that.”

Liberman says the choice was a no-brainer after searching for a long time for the perfect fit. “He wrote the lyrics to that melody and sang it in Yoruba, and you can hear him. He happened to know Izzy as well, so it was another synergy moment.”

Image: Israel Adesanya and Arli Liberman Credit: Jen Raoult

As one final scene closes out the documentary, one of the film’s sync tracks, which are scattered throughout, resets the energy, and Adesanya is seen grooving out to Kendrick Lamar’s “I” as the credits roll.

Adesanya’s love of dance is a constant theme throughout Stylebender, highlighted initially during a scene in Rotorua High School where he reflects on one of his first times performing live in front of an audience at the school’s talent quest when he did a solo dance. 

He recalls in the film how the moment gave him “street cred” – and that flair for dancing has never been far from his interests, spotted in varying ways before (entrances), during (celebrations), and after (victory laps) his fights. 

“Dancing is so personal to me, I can fight in front of the whole world but dancing is, when someone watches me dancing, it feels like they’re looking into my diary,” he says. “It feels like I’m bearing my soul. For me, the bathroom scene when I was talking about getting bullied and I was dancing quite aggressively, it was a good way to convey that and show wanting to break free from those grips of those guys.”

“[…] the song choices as well, juxtaposed together, really brought out the emotion that I was trying to convey, and me dancing in the bathroom now as a grown man, shirt off, it’s the strength that I embody now that I wish I had back then – but I wouldn’t have had that [strength] without going through that [high school bullying].”

Stylebender is both a time capsule capturing one of the most exciting periods of Adesanya’s life and an exquisite example of Liberman’s musical abilities. Both the artist and the athlete can surely look back and feel a sense of accomplishment, not just for themselves but the impact their work has had on others.

“To see the final product, the way it was shot, it was a way to show what I’m preaching when I talk about ‘look after your mental health,'” Adesanya says. “I’m showing it rather than just telling it. It was a good way to showcase that.”

Streaming information for Stylebender can be found here. Listen to Liberman’s official soundtrack here.