Israel Adesanya obviously didn’t expect to be here.

The former middleweight champion entered the UFC Saudi Arabia main event off two straight losses, but he never expected a third until Nassourdine Imavov blasted him with a barrage of punches that ended his night in the second round. Following the fight, Adesanya was understandably upset with how things played out, especially as he sought to get back on track on Saturday.

“Disappointed,” Adesanya said about his performance during the UFC post-fight show. “I hate disappointing my fans and my team. My team’s still proud of me for the work that I put into this. It’s just the thrill and agony.”

It’s a particularly difficult moment for Adesanya considering the way the pendulum swung for him from an outstanding start in the first round to a rapid-fire sequence that led to his downfall in the second. Of course, Adesanya now has to absorb this defeat after he put everything into his training camp to get ready for Imavov but this was the final result.

Still, Adesanya acknowledged that kind of anguish is something he has to face alone and it’s not really a feeling the rest of the world gets to experience alongside him.

“I don’t think it’s for them to know,” Adesanya said. “You have to really be in it to know. Only a privileged few will ever get to this point and understand.

“To be able to feel something so great but also able to feel something so deep and so [frustrating]. It’s a f*cking lovely game, but it’s a stupid game at the same time.”

Adesanya definitely gave Imavov his due for a job well done but it’s still a difficult loss to accept considering how the fight started.

“He must be excited to beat a guy like me,” Adesanya said. “But again, I felt good. Round one, I was in control of everything. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken some time. I just didn’t want him to rest because I knew he was tired. I didn’t want him to rest. But again, [hindsight is] 20/20.”

With a third consecutive loss, Adesanya undoubtedly falls further from potentially getting the middleweight title back but he already stated prior to the fight that he’s never chased championships in the UFC.

Perhaps the better question now is whether or not Adesanya decides to return to compete again after dropping his third straight fight but even with a win, he promises that answer wasn’t coming soon.

“I don’t know [what’s next],” Adesanya said. “I have to chill and then think about things. I’ll relax for a little bit, just help the teammates who have fights coming up and see what I want to do. I was going to do that anyway but now I’m forced to. Shout out to Nassourdine for that.”

As a parting shot, Adesanya responded to a comment about hoping to see him back in the octagon again by saying “not soon though.”

In other words, it appears Adesanya is really going to take some time to figure out what the future holds for him with his 36th birthday approaching later this year and a legacy already cemented in UFC history.