Israel Adesanya suffered his third loss in a row this past weekend in Riyadh after being TKO’d by Nassourdine Imavov, and another former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has since stated his belief that ‘The Last Stylebender’s’ days of fighting for championship belts are overs.
“Can you believe this? The reign of Israel Adesanya is over. It’s done,” Bisping declared on his YouTube channel. “I say that with the greatest of respect.
“Israel Adesanya is an absolute legend of the sport. He will be in the Hall of Fame, and he may go on to fight again. But I don’t think he’ll ever fight for a middleweight championship, or a belt of any kind.
“What he’s given the sport is incredible, but I always say this, ‘This sport is a motherf*cker.’ You scratch and claw. You work your way to the top. You deal with a lot of bullish*t. You work your God damn ass off. You go through injuries. You put relationships to one side. You’ve got to be selfish and work your f*cking ass off.”
“Guess what this sport does. It picks you up, it uses you up, it chews you up and the it spits you out,” Bisping concluded. “That sounds harsh but that’s what it does. And that’s what it’s done to Israel Adesanya.”
Bisping knows this feeling only too well as he went on a memorable five-fight winning streak late in his UFC career that saw him defeat Anderson Silva, win the 185lb title by KO’ing Luke Rockhold and then avenging an infamous loss to Dan Henderson, only to then be submitted by Georges St-Pierre and KO’d by Kelvin Gastelum in the space of a single month before retiring.
Adesanya’s slide has not been so abrupt, but the reality is that he’s now lost four of his last five fights, including being TKO’d by Alex Pereira, submitted by Dricus du Plessis and TKO’d by Imavov, as well as losing by unanimous decision to Sean Strickland, and having only lost once in his previous 24 MMA fights that’s a clear sign that he is now in decline.
As yet Adesanya hasn’t given any indication that he plans to retire though, and given his star power will continue to ensure he gets big fights, the 35-year-old might still fancy his chances of turning things around and proving Bisping wrong.
