Israel Adesanya has some difficult decisions to make regarding his future after he suffered a third straight loss following a brutal knockout delivered by Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event.
While there’s certainly no shame in losing a top 10 ranked fighter in addition to previous defeats to reigning UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis and No. 1 contender Sean Strickland, it’s unfamiliar territory for Adesanya. UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping, who also held the middleweight title in the past, praised Adesanya for everything he’s done in his career but it’s likely that he’s never going to climb back to the top of the mountain again.
“The biggest takeaway is that it’s over,” Bisping said on the UFC Saudi Arabia post-fight show. “Israel Adesanya’s reign as champion, I don’t think will come again.
“I say that with the greatest of respect and I truly mean that. An original. An incredible fighter. A legend of the sport. A future Hall of Famer. But his time at the top is done.”
It’s tough to argue against Bisping’s logic given Adesanya’s three-fight losing streak coupled with the fact that he’s turning 36 later this year and time waits for no one in this sport.
While nothing is impossible, Bisping knows it would be incredibly difficult for Adesanya to put together the kind of run now that would eventually lead him back to UFC gold.
Thankfully, Adesanya’s legacy is already cemented after he stood tall as the UFC middleweight champion for three years and five title defenses. Even after he lost the belt to longtime rival Alex Pereira in 2022, Adesanya got it back along with a measure of revenge when he beat the Brazilian in the rematch six months later.
“The career that he’s had is legendary but more importantly the man’s an original,” Bisping said about Adesanya. “The man is unique. Yes, we’ve seen great kickboxers and we’ll see more great kickboxers but the people that have the flare, the charisma, did they put on the show that Israel Adesanya does? From the walkouts to the post fight speeches that we saw when he beat Alex Pereira, and that gives you chills. I will never forget that. Everybody remembers watching that for the first time. Doing the breakdancing on the way out, the whole light show and all the rest of it.
“Yeah, OK, the knockouts are memorable, they’re incredible, they’re amazing right? When you combine it [with] everything else, I mean the man’s an absolutely superstar. He really is. Of course, the second best middleweight of all time, without a shadow of a doubt. He’ll say the No. 1 but that’s what we do. We’re fighters. We’ll always say that we’re No. 1.”
As much as the three consecutive losses sting right now, Bisping also points out that Adesanya has almost certainly put his body through hell during a career that dates back nearly 15 years between kickboxing and MMA.
It all culminates in nights like these at UFC Saudi Arabia where Adesanya now has to really contemplate his future to decide where he goes from here.
“A long career at the highest level has a lot of wear and tear on the body and not just the fights,” Bisping explained. “The training camps. The training camps are worse than the fights. A fight is won and you might go out there, we’ve seen Israel Adesanya just destroy people, use the leg kicks, just pimp them, beat them easily but that doesn’t happen in the training camp. Otherwise, you don’t improve. You get worse. You build bad habits. You need to be getting pushed and get people taking you down, wrestling you, ground and pounding you, choking you out. You’re tweaking ankles and legs. You’re taking punches on the chin.
“When you do this at the highest level, you train accordingly, that’s what takes its toll on the body. Yes, he’s taking some lumps and bumps inside of the octagon. He took one tonight. But that combined with the years and years of training to get to this level, that’s the problem. That’s the issue.”
