Israel Adesanya’s UFC Saudi Arabia defeat left one former middleweight titleholder doubtful about him returning to championship glory.
Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya extended the longest losing streak of his combat sports career at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday. After an effective first round against Nassourdine Imavov, Imavov dropped Adesanya with two brutal Round 2 punches to pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent middleweight history.
It was a shocking result for Adesanya which had Khabib Nurmagomedov stunned in a social media reaction. Before his UFC Saudi Arabia defeat, Adesanya suffered back-to-back title fight losses to Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland, who will rematch for the belt next weekend at UFC 312.
Adesanya had a chance to potentially secure another middleweight title shot with a solid performance at UFC Saudi Arabia. But after his third consecutive loss, Adesanya is firmly on the outside of the title mix for the first time in years.
Fans called for Adesanya to retire after UFC Saudi Arabia, in a stunning turn of events after a long middleweight title reign.
After Adesanya’s stunning defeat, a former UFC middleweight champion acknowledged that we might’ve seen the best of ‘Stylebender’ and that he’s likely in the final days of his fighting career.
Michael Bisping shocked by Israel Adesanya’s rapid decline
During the UFC Saudi Arabia post-fight show on ESPN, UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping gave a brutally honest reaction to Adesanya’s latest defeat.
“Nobody saw that coming,” Bisping said of Adesanya’s loss. “I’m telling you right now. Yes, Imavov his whole team. They planned it. They saw it. They worked for it. They drilled it, okay? But nobody picked that tonight. Absolutely not. That is a huge upset, a massive upset.
“It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish and he finished face down on the octagon. I’ve got tremendous respect for the champion, he had a wonderful career. Tonight it looks like it might be the beginning of the end of an incredible career, sadly. And this is a crazy thing to say, he has now lost four out of his last five, which if you ever said that out loud a couple of years ago people would think you were absolutely crazy.”
Two years before this writing, Adesanya got his revenge against Alex Pereira by knocking him out cold at UFC 287. He finally got a win against Pereira after two kickboxing losses and one UFC loss at UFC 281.
Bisping’s assertions arguably hold some merit. After back-to-back losses to Georges St-Pierre and Kelvin Gastelum, which came after a five-fight winning streak that included a title win, Bisping hung up the gloves and transitioned full-time to broadcasting.
Did UFC Saudi Arabia mark the end of Israel Adesanya’s greatness?
Before losses in four of his last five fights, Adesanya was considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC after a decorated middleweight title reign. He became the only two-time middleweight champion in UFC history after defeating Pereira.
Adesanya was knocking on the door of Anderson Silva’s middleweight title defense record before a stunning defeat at UFC 281. He successfully defended the belt against top contenders like Jared Cannonier, Paulo Costa, and Robert Whittaker.
After another surprising setback in the Octagon, Adesanya’s UFC future remains foggy. If Bisping’s claims are proven true, Adesanya’s best performances might be firmly behind him.