{"id":410077,"date":"2026-01-13T12:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410077\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:40:18","slug":"israel-adesanya-offered-comeback-fight-by-ufc-star-who-hasnt-won-in-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410077\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya offered comeback fight by UFC star who hasn\u2019t won in four years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colby Covington has opened the door to a fight with Israel Adesanya as he looks to make a UFC return at middleweight.<\/p>\n

Adesanya<\/a> is only 11 months removed from a shocking knockout defeat to Nassourdine Imavov<\/a> in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\"RIYADH,<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Adesanya was flattened by a nasty right hand from Imavov in the UFC Fight Night main eventCredit: GETTY\"TAMPA,<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Covington admitted he isn’t a fan of Adesanya’s and wants to test his mettle against the former UFC championCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The fight marked his third straight loss in Dana White<\/a>‘s promotion and his first non-title bout in six years.<\/p>\n

Covington, meanwhile, is on a similar run of form, having not claimed a win in the UFC<\/a> since outpointing Jorge Masvidal<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

‘Chaos’ then fought and lost to Leon Edwards<\/a> in a UFC welterweight title bout before being beaten up by Joaquin Buckley<\/a> in his last fight in December 2024.<\/p>\n

The American appeared under the Real American Freestyle (RAF)<\/a> banner this past weekend, dominating Luke Rockhold in the main event of RAF05.<\/p>\n

READ MORE MMA NEWS<\/p>\n

He says the bout was a test to see what a bigger opponent felt like and, after coming out on top, is now favouring a move up 15lbs to fight at middleweight with Adesanya in his sights.<\/p>\n

Colby Covington: I don’t like Israel Adesanya and fighting him makes a lot of sense<\/p>\n

“Someone like Israel Adesanya intrigues me,” Covington told Submission Radio<\/a> this week on the back of his win over Rockhold.<\/p>\n

“A former champion like myself, someone who generates hype, has a following, has a platform and a brand. <\/p>\n

“So I think the Izzy fight makes a lot more sense than anything, and he’s someone I don’t really like.<\/p>\n

“He’s talked a lot of sh*t about me in the past, let’s see if he can back it up.”<\/p>\n

Covington has fought at welterweight his entire UFC career, winning the division’s interim belt by defeating Rafael dos Anjos over five rounds in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Colby<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Covington was battered by Buckley in his last fight, with a doctor’s stoppage due to eye damage ending the fight in round threeCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

He then overcame Robbie Lawler in his next fight, but failed to claim undisputed status in two meetings with Kamaru Usman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old says there is a current lack of star power in the welterweight division, so he wants to move up to get big fights with not long left at MMA’s summit.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Rockhold victory] gave me a lot of confidence going forward that I can do well at middleweight,” Covington added.<\/p>\n

“They may be bigger, they may hit harder, but they’re a lot slower. <\/p>\n

“I’m just as strong as them, I’m putting on a lot of size these days and getting stronger.”<\/p>\n

Covington also mentioned Sean Strickland as a worthy opponent, saying his fellow American is simply ‘a cardio kickboxer’ and he would ‘beat him everywhere.’<\/p>\n

What’s next for Adesanya?\"RIYADH,<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Adesanya isn’t concerned with winning anymore UFC title as his fighting career comes to an endCredit: getty<\/p>\n

Adesanya has claimed that he will take more risks as he enters the final chapter of his fighting career.<\/p>\n

“Whenever I\u2019m out and about in Auckland, every day I always get the \u2018Oh I hear you\u2019re retired!\u2019, and at first I used to explain myself,” Adesanya said during a Q&A at Bangtao Muay Thai and MMA<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

“But now, I just go, ‘Yeah, I’m retired,’ until they see me on the poster. For me, it\u2019s not about belts anymore – I\u2019ve got two shiny belts at home. <\/p>\n

“It looks good, but I just wanna fight. I just wanna do things like I did on my way to the belt. <\/p>\n

“I still fought really well when I was defending the belt, but I wanna fight more freely and try risky s*** like I used to.”<\/p>\n

After fulfilling a childhood dream by fighting Anderson Silva<\/a>, ‘The Last Stylebender’ became UFC middleweight champion in 2019 and defended the belt five times before epic back-to-back bouts with Alex Pereira<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Adesanya's<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

His KO of Alex Pereira at UFC 287 marked one of the most unforgettable moments in the promotion’s historyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Pereira, a longtime kickboxing opponent of Adesanya’s, knocked out the Nigerian-born New Zealander at UFC 281 in November 2022, but Adesanya famously exacted revenge in their rematch five months later.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

He was then dramatically upset by Strickland at UFC 293 and has since suffered consecutive losses, marking the worst run of form of his entire career.<\/p>\n

Adesanya has previously discussed a potential rematch with Strickland, but explained in September why it no longer interests him<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colby Covington has opened the door to a fight with Israel Adesanya as he looks to make a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[217000,64,63,56533,107252,786,54075,217001,217002,785,9226,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-410077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-adesanya-ufc","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-colby-covington","tag-covington","tag-fighting","tag-israel-adesanya","tag-israel-adesanya-comeback","tag-israel-adesanya-next-fight","tag-mma","tag-mma-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}