Israel Adesanya wants to fight free when he returns to the octagon.
“The Last Stylebender,” a former two-time middleweight champion, is currently riding a three-fight losing streak — the longest of his storied career. In his lone 2025 appearance, Adesanya was stopped by Nasosurdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia in February.
“That’s a good question,” Adesanya said. “Like now, whenever I’m out and about in Auckland, every day I always get the, ‘Are you retired?’ At first, I had to explain myself: ‘Nah, I’m just taking a break, I’m doing other things,’ but now I just go, ‘Yeah, I’m retired,’ until they see me on a poster.”
Prior to the loss to Imavov, Adesanya was stopped by Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305 in August 2024 in his first bout since losing the middleweight title to Sean Strickland 11 months prior at UFC 293.
Adesanya had a rapid rise to the top, going undefeated in MMA until he lost a decision to Jan Blachowicz in his quest to become a two-division champion at UFC 259 in March 2021.
The 36-year-old wants to compete by having as much fun as possible moving forward, and trying to do some things that aren’t expected of him.
“For me, it’s not about belts anymore,” Adesanya explained. “I’ve got two shiny belts at home. They look good. But I just want to fight. I just want to do things like I did on the way to the belt.
“I still fought really well when I was defending the belt, but I want to fight more freely. I want to try some risky shit like I used to. Remember the [Brad] Taveres fight? At the end of the first round, I went for an imanari roll, and I failed. I want to try shit like that again.”
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