In his first 14 fights in the UFC, Israel Adesanya suffered only one defeat, and even then during his trip to the light heavyweight division for the second belt. Today Izzy stumbled for the second time in his last three fights. Are we seeing the decline of one of the greatest middleweight champions?
Last night Adesanya simply lost by a wicket to Sean Strickland who, in theory, should not have challenged for the title. The American came to save the UFC 293 tournament, but ended up eliminating the champion, giving him only one round out of five. Also, in the first five minutes, Strickland almost finished off the Australian.
“Israel seemed to be in slow motion today, it seemed very tense and very slow. Only Izzy himself knows what happened. I’m curious to see what he says at the press conference. There are a million things that could go wrong. Sometimes you just wake up and walk around all day without being yourself. Israel was lost and empty today. It stayed high and was very slow. Even in the fifth round, when everyone understood that he needed a knockout to win the fight, he didn’t even try to do it. I don’t know if he got injured or if it just wasn’t his day,” promotion head Dana White said after the fight.
Strickland pulled off the surprise of the year:
The surprise of the year! Strickland defeats Adesanya and becomes the new middleweight king
Adesanya himself did not explain anything, only pointing out that he lost against someone who was better: “I had a different plan, but life challenged me again. Win or lose, I wasn’t planning on saying much anyway, but I lost to the best fighter of the night. Now I just want to go and be with the people who care about me: my team. I want to relax, have breakfast, see you next time.”
The worst thing for Adesanya and his fans is that this defeat cannot be attributed to a stroke of luck. No, the champion simply found no argument for Strickland’s game plan. In general, a person who was laughed at for his strange posture and way of fighting was called a middle peasant and a peasant. And Sean went out and won.
It is difficult to say unequivocally what was the cause of this failure of the champion. The most obvious reason seems to be simple wear and tear. There is a lot to dislike about Izzy, but it is worth recognizing that he is perhaps the most active fighter of those who held or hold the title. Adesanya just accepted all the challenges: Romero, Vettori, Costa, Cannonier, Whittaker, Alex Pereira. Even before the Strickland fight, Israel said he wanted to fight new blood in the future, hinting at Khamzat Chimaev. However, sometimes it pays to take a short break and give your body a break from lifting weights and hard training. Adesanya’s longest hiatus between title fights was 8 months and 24 days. All other fights happen on average 4-5 months later. Take a look at how often other champions are fighting. It’s a breakneck pace and it’s easy to assume that the accumulated load and minor injuries have taken their toll.
At one time Adesanya was suspected of using steroids:
“What’s wrong with your breasts, Izzy?” The UFC champion was accused of taking steroids, but he got away with it
After the rematch with Pereira, it seemed that Adesanya had woken up and the champion was back. As it turned out, this fuse didn’t last long. For old times’ sake, Izzy will still have a rematch with Strickland and may even find a way to beat him. However, there is no longer a dominant champion in the middleweight division, and all the fighters in the top five know this very well.
You could write off the loss to Strickland as a simple understatement, but Adesanya has been in the UFC for so long that it would be strange for him to allow this to happen. Also, the whole week before the fight he repeated the mantra: “Sean has nothing to lose and these people are very dangerous.”
The coach of the former champion Eugene Bairman believes that his player was confused by the opponent’s constant counterattacks and the lack of help from the corner: “Sean left Israel indecisive. How did he do it? He would throw punches every time Izzy threw them. Strickland constantly counterattacked. When Adesanya attacked, it was not known if a counterattack was waiting for us? And Sean always fought back. And when you fight a fighter with this style, it’s very, very difficult, it always creates a mental block. And we have to find ways to remove this blockage. Izzy struggled with this throughout the entire fight. Adesanya didn’t see the things we saw from the corner. And we couldn’t get the connection between the corner and the fighter, it was a disappointing night.”
However, this leads to a question. If you’re at a loss because a not-so-sophisticated fighter with basic striking techniques is counterattacking you, are you really at the championship level? Or is it all over and Adesanya will not return to the top? In such a situation, a rotation of champions in the middleweight division may begin, new hungry contenders may appear, and Izzy himself will go down in history as the one who attempted, but fell short of, the greatness of Anderson Silva.
