Israel Adesaniah remembers a conversation with Dana White, who proved to be prophetic.
Ahead of Adesanya’s title defense against Shaun Strickland at UFC 293 in September 2023, the UFC CEO warned Adesanya that his level of activity and willingness to take on an opponent could catch up with him. Adesanya continued to lose his biased decision to Strickland, which marked the end of his second middleweight championship reign and the beginning of a career-worst three-fight slump.
Adesanya recalled the exchange in his recent episode Young man rumble show.
“I said, ‘No, I have to fight in Sydney. I have to fight. I haven’t fought on this side of the world for a long time,” Adesanya said. “And Dana said, “Listen, kid. You have enough money. Relax for a while.”
“So I was like “Nah.” I’ve become stubborn.
Since that loss, Adesanya has struggled to get back on track. He was given the opportunity to become a three-time champion at UFC 305, but was submitted by rival Dricus du Plessis and lost the first non-title battle since 2019 to Nasoldin Imavov this February.
The 35-year-old “The Last Stylebender” plans to make him more selective in the rest of the fight, and hopes that he will one day be Strickland.
“No doubt,” Adesanya said when guest Sean O’Malley asked if he wanted a rematch with Strickland. “It’s on my list, but again, not for the others. One of the (my brothers) got involved in the activity and my body, and we all got into the fight, so I had one of the cats take out the bag and I did the job.
“Strickland’s stuff for me, it’s just that I want to know that he broke my best version. Then I, I’m cool.”