Israel Adesanya returns to action this weekend at UFC Seattle against Joe Pyfer, and despite not having the middleweight title any more he does have thoughts on current champion Khamzat Chimaev.

From 2019 to 2024, all twelve of Adesanya’s fights had him either fighting for or defending a belt. He’s fallen out of the contender’s circle after three losses in a row, and now it’s Khamzat Chimaev who sits atop the 185 pound division. The only problem? “Borz” isn’t active enough for Izzy’s taste.

“He did well to get the belt, but I’m not sure what’s holding him up or why,” Adesanya told Paramount’s Brian Campbell. “Maybe it was visa issues. I’m not sure. I don’t really follow the MMA news as much, so I’m not sure what’s holding it up. Because I felt like he would be an active champion. He should be an active champion because he’s a guy that likes to fight a lot when he was coming up, just like me.”

“But when I got the belt, I didn’t let that slow me down. I was active. I was calling out everybody. I was trying to find the best and fight them, so I think he should be doing the same.”

Adesanya fought an impressive four times during his UFC rookie year in 2018, then got three fights in for 2019 and 2022. He never fought less than twice a year while holding the belt. Chimaev had that legendary fast start in 2020 with three fights in three months, only to fight once a year over the past three years. He won the belt in August 2025, and is finally set to defend it for the first time against Sean Strickland in May, nine months later.

“I think he can [win] if it goes to the later rounds and he doesn’t get taken down,” Adesanya said of the UFC 328 title fight. “But Chimaev is a bat out of hell. He’s a guy that comes aggressively straight away and Strickland can match that probably, but we’ll see.”

“And they’ve trained together, so this is probably something that already happened in the gym that we are not privy to. So yeah, it’ll be interesting, and I look forward to watching it and reacting to it on YouTube.”

For now, Adesanya will continue to spend UFC Seattle fight week answering questions about his skid and whether he can end it against Joe Pyfer.

“I’m very determined [to win] and it’s not even about the losing skid,” he said. “It’s just to perform. I really wanna perform, because when I perform, wins comes, the gold comes. So yeah, my main focus this weekend is just to perform, and I know I can do that.”