Israel Adesanya Won’t Be Fighting ‘For a Long Time’ Following Sean Strickland Loss

Fans might have to wait a while before they get to see Israel Adesanya back inside the Octagon.

The Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion is coming off a shocking unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.

After the bout, Adesanya opted out from his post-fight press conference duties, assigning his coach the responsibility of talking to the media. Apart from a short interview uploaded to his YouTube channel, “The Last Stylebender” has mostly kept to himself, seemingly taking much-needed time to regroup and recalibrate.

However, the former middleweight champion recently made an appearance on "The Rock" radio show, where he addressed several topics relating to his fighting career — including his UFC return timeline.

“Before this fight I was very like, ‘I know I’m on the back end of my career, so I want to do as many as I can' because I know when I’m done with this I’m going to miss it... I’m trying to do as much as I can,” Adesanya said. “But then after this fight, and again, 14 months and four fights, it’s not just the fights, it’s the training and everything.”

Undoubtedly one of the most decorated middleweights in the history of the sport, Adesanya's strength of schedule has been impressive as well. The two-time middleweight champion has competed in four title fights over the past 14 months.

Following his fifth title defense against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276 in July 2022, Adesanya found himself engaged in back-to-back bouts with his long-time rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281 and UFC 287. After the loss to Pereira at UFC 281, Adesanya spectacularly recaptured the title in the rematch with “Poatan” with a Round 2 knockout victory in April. Five months later, the Nigerian-born Kiwi was back in the Octagon at UFC 293, facing Sean Strickland in Australia.

“I had injuries going into the Pereira fight, you’ve seen that. I don’t make any excuses,” Adesanya said. “Strickland got me on the night because he was the better fighter on the night. He did his work well. He had a good team behind him. I never made excuses. I gave him props.”

As of now, it seems like “The Last Stylebender” won't be returning to the Octagon for a bit.

“Now I’m going to take time to look after myself, and I’m not going to fight for a long time.” he sad. “I’m definitely not going to retire because I know me, I’m not leaving like that. I know me. But if I did, I’m fine. I don’t need to prove anything else. But I know what I can do and I know what I can change in my lifestyle to make my body adapt to where I need to be. I’m going to heal myself up. You won’t see me fight for a long time.”