Israel Adesanya has to go back to the drawing board.
UFC 305’s highly-anticipated grudge match main event resulted in a successful first title defense for the new Middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis. South Africa’s “StillKnocks” was tested early by the former two-time champion, Adesanya, but ultimately came up big in round four when he secured a face crank and the tap (watch highlights).
The loss was in Adesanya’s first fight since his title loss to Sean Strickland by unanimous decision at UFC 293 in September 2023 (watch highlights). Although Adesanya looked sharp in the Octagon, he’s now 1-3 in his last four fights (24-4 overall). His fellow former champion, Michael Bisping, believes we’ve seen the last “Stylebender” title tilt.
“He looked great, he had moments of brilliance, certainly in round three when he was piecing Dricus Du Plessis up on the feet,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Junkie). “Ripping to the body, beautiful shots delivered with perfect technique, but ultimately he lost the fight. We’ve got to ask the question: Is ‘Izzy’ done? Are his championship days over? Because the answer to that one is more than likely probably.
“It’s a tough reality,” he continued. “Fight sports is a b*tch. They don’t care. Israel Adesanya had moments of brilliance. He looked really good and looked to be in great shape. He had a bit more muscle on him. He took this fight seriously. He went out there and got beat. The last one, he got beat against Sean Strickland. Two fights before that, he lost to Alex Pereira.”
Bisping, 45, closed out his illustrious career in the title picture toward the end of 2017. “The Count” only competed in three title fights during his 39-fight career (30-9), but he made the most of his opportunities, winning two of his three.
One fight after Bisping dropped the Middleweight crown to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, he called it a career. The same type of path might not be in Adesanya’s future. Bisping just sees the lifelong journey Adesanya’s gone through start to take too much of a toll.
“When you look at the history, when you look at the track record, Israel Adesanya has now lost three out of his last four fights,” Bisping said. “That is a far cry from the championship run that he went on where he was stopping everybody, defending the belt in 12 consecutive title fights. That’s an insane amount of pressure, stress on the body.
“Physically and mentally, a big burden to carry,” he continued. “Five-round training camps, one after the other. … But is the career coming to a close for Isreal Adesanya? Yeah probably because you only have one peak; you don’t have two. That’s why it’s called the peak. And when you look throughout combat sports history, it’s what always happens.”
