Israel Adesanya won’t be hanging up his gloves imminently.
Adesanya has earned his share of accomplishments throughout his fighting career. The former Glory Kickboxing star made a seamless transition to MMA, and he captured the UFC Middleweight Championship twice. While Adesanya enjoyed his time ruling the roost at 185 pounds, he now finds himself in unfamiliar territory with three straight losses.
“The Last Stylebender” hasn’t been able to secure a win since April 2023 when he knocked out Alex Pereira to regain the UFC middleweight title. He went on to lose the 185-pound gold to Sean Strickland in a massive upset. He was then submitted by Dricus du Plessis before suffering a TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov.
While some have wondered if Adesanya is close to retiring, it appears his team feels he has some juice left in the tank. City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman told Submission Radio that “Izzy” wants back inside the Octagon soon (via MMAFighting).
“Izzy, right now, had, basically, the start of the year off [after the Imavov loss], and he has come back into training in the last couple of months,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “He’s training regularly, so he’s training every day, twice a day. And he needs to prepare his mind and body for a potential fight at the end of this year, and so that’s what he’s doing.”
Bareman went on to say that as long as Adesanya can be featured in bouts he’s intrigued by, he will sign on the dotted line.
“As far as opponents, I don’t know,” Bareman said. “Izzy’s got a couple more in him, just give him a fun fight. Give him something exciting. Give him something fun. I haven’t really thought about specific names, [we should] leave it to the fans, I guess.”
How the UFC matchmakers will book Adesanya will be an interesting story to watch in the coming weeks.