Israel Adesanya isn’t broken up about his recent title defeat.
The former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight kingpin, Adesanya, has remained silent since he suffered a unanimous decision loss (watch highlights) against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 earlier this month (Sept. 9, 2023). Strickland handed Adesanya just his second loss as a Middleweight after losing to Alex Pereira late last year (Nov. 12, 2023) via a fifth round technical knockout (watch highlights).
Despite his shortcomings, Adesanya is feeling “quietly confident” in the aftermath, speaking for the first time in an interview released today (Weds, Sept. 20, 2023).
“You’ve seen me even if I’ve had fights that I’ve won but I wasn’t really satisfied,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “I was just like ugh. I don’t want to watch that s—t. But I just watched it anyway so I could learn from it and this is no different. I wasn’t happy with the performance.
“As soon as I watched it, it’s the same reaction every time, ‘Oh, that wasn’t that bad,’” he continued. “Even fights that I’ve won, I’m like, ‘Ah, it probably looks s—t.’ This was the same thing. That wasn’t that bad. The way I felt in there was different than how it looked. It was like a bad dream. You try and hit the guy and it just feels like noodle arms.”
As the fight went on against Strickland, Adesanya could be heard between rounds, expressing his struggles to his coach, Eugene Bareman, about his inability to find his strikes. Defensively, Strickland received heaps of praise for his performance against the talented kickboxer, Adesanya.
“I wasn’t able to adjust on the fly,” Adesanya said. “It was his night and he got it done. I made another dream come true.”
Asked when he plans on returning, Adesanya answered “We’ll see,” indicating that he’s in no rush to return at the moment.