Israel Adesanya lost a decision to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 last Sept. in Sydney.
“The Last Stylebender” never recovered from his first-round knockdown and needed a finish in the final frame of their 25-minute contest to keep “Tarzan” from usurping the middleweight throne. That would have required Adesanya to go for broke — at the expense of his defense — but head coach Eugene Bareman favored a more tactical approach.
In short, the former champ lived to fight another day.
“I never lost hope,” Adesanya told Teddy Atlas. “I went back to the corner, round three or round four, whatever it was, I was like, ‘Right, we go this round, we must go this round.’ Even like when I asked Eugene in the fifth round, I said ‘Should I just go?’ And he’s like, ‘No, let’s be tactical.’ I wanted to kind of be like, ‘F**k it, let’s go.’ Like, if I die, I die, like, go out on your shield.”
Adesanya was also “prepared to die” against Kelvin Gastelum.
Despite the loss, Adesanya insists his UFC 293 performance “wasn’t that bad,” noodle arms notwithstanding. There’s a chance “The Last Stylebender” returns to reclaim his crown as part of the UFC 300 pay-per-view (PPV) event this April in Las Vegas, but that may depend on what happens when Strickland defends against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297.
Unless something crazy happens (like this).