Israel Adesanya has nothing left to prove.
Even after suffering a stunning second-round knockout to Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event, Adesanya has already cemented himself as one of the all-time greats at middleweight and arguably a top fighter in UFC history. While Adesanya immediately proclaimed that he planned on returning to action despite the disappointing result, UFC legend Matt Brown wonders if that’s really his best option.
“He’s got to be thirsty again,” Brown explained on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “He’s got to go back to getting up at 5 a.m. on your silk sheets and not going out on Saturday night. You’ve got to go back to those things you did as a youth. That’s a hard thing to do. It’s not easy. He’s comfortable. He’s had an amazing career. That’s hard to forget all that and go back to training, going back to those day one things.
“Should he retire? I think that’s the big question. Obviously that’s going to be up to himself, but I would have to agree that he’s probably not getting back to title fights any time soon. Probably never again.”
If Adesanya isn’t going to occupy a spot near the top of the rankings with title contention looming around the corner, Brown just doesn’t see many great fights available for him right now in the UFC’s middleweight division.
Off three straight losses, Adesanya obviously has some work to do if he wants to re-enter the championship conversation, but unlike some divisions in the UFC, the 185-pound weight class isn’t riddled with stars.
That’s why Brown questions what Adesanya would really be fighting for at this stage of his career.
“He’ll have to decide for himself if he wants to retire, because he’s held the title for so long, it’s like do you want to keep fighting middle of the road fights or whatever?” Brown said. “I was trying to think of some fun fights that would just be fun for him. Nothing really came up in my head. I’m sure there’s always options out there that would be fun. The other option if the UFC would let him do it, I know we would all love to see him in some influencer boxing stuff. I’d love to see him fight Jake Paul or something.
“But what’s he going to do in the UFC? What are you going to do? How excited are you going to get to just fight [random] guys? If you’re not working towards a goal, working towards the title, you’re just putting yourself at risk all the time. Now if he needs the money, that’s a different thing. I’m hoping he doesn’t.”
The other option available to Adesanya is finding a way to re-invent himself as a fighter as he approaches his 36th birthday later this year.
Brown looks at the way Adesanya fights with quick-twitch reactions, deadly and accurate striking and a style that’s largely built around precise timing.
As fighters get older or take more damage, those are all attributes that can dramatically change, which is why Brown says Adesanya might be forced to alter his style if he wants to continue competing at the highest level of the sport — and that’s easier said than done.
“Something I preach to my fighters all the time is once you get about 35, 40 [years old] or whatever, a lot of those reactionary moves, techniques, kind of stop working,” Brown said. “We’ve seen it in boxing for years and years. Unfortunately for Izzy, that’s kind of his style. He does a lot of things that you wouldn’t teach in a fundamentals class. He gets tall sometimes, leaves his chin out there, doesn’t necessarily keep his hands up a lot. These are all things when you’re young, they work very well. When you start getting up there in age, it doesn’t always work so well.
“That’s why you don’t see [boxers] like Prince Naseem [Hamed], you don’t see him when he’s 40 years old still out there fighting, but you do see guys like Bernard Hopkins out there. It’s just those fundamentals. I think Izzy could do it. He still has the athleticism. He still has the mental fortitude. I think he has all those qualities, but I think he would have to change a lot with his style that may be too deeply ingrained in him to be able to do something like that.”
Brown believes that Adesanya is capable of just about anything, but he’s just not sure it’s really worth it any longer, especially after everything “The Last Stylebender” has already accomplished.
“That’s not criticizing him,” Brown said. “I’m going to say forever he’s one of the greats in history. [His style] worked for him while it worked and now it’s not working. That’s the way I see it.”
