UFC Seattle went down last Saturday night (March 28, 2026) leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Maycee Barber, who was on the receiving end of one of the most spectacular finishes in UFC history after Alexa Grasso knocked her out and then proceeded to make sure the job was done by latching on to a rear-naked choke (see it again here).
And Julian Erosa, who was erased by UFC newcomer Lerryan Douglas in the very first round (relive it here). But which fighter is suffering
from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the action-packed show?
Israel Adesanya.
Coming into his headlining bout against Joe Pyfer, “The Last Stylebender” was on a three-fight losing streak with his last win coming almost three years ago against Alex Pereira. Despite his slump, Adesanya was as confident as ever because, after all, losing to Dricus du Plessis, Sean Strickland and Nassourdine Imavov is nothing to be ashamed of. Still, a win was of the utmost importance for the sensational striker if for nothing else than to keep his sanity intact.
It never came.
Things started of fairly well for Adesanya, who used his kicks to hurt Pyfer’s leg early on. Had he kept that gameplan going he probably could’ve finished the fight in the following rounds or, at the very least, slowed Pyfer down to the point that the threat of offensive outburst was unlikely. Instead, Adesanya engaged in a slugfest that didn’t bode well for him after “Bodybagz” started connecting. Instead of retreating, Adesanya stayed in there and paid for it, ultimately resulting in a technical knockout loss (TKO) loss (see it again here).
After the crushing defeat, “The Last Stylebender” assured everyone that despite losing four straight he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Keep going again and again and again and again and again!” Adesanya yelled during his post-fight interview. “I’m not f–king leaving! You’ll never stop me. I might get beaten, but I’ll always remain undefeated.”
It’s hard to pinpoint why exactly Adesanya can’t seem to get back on track after such an excellent start to his UFC career that saw him win the title, defended it a few times and take out some of the best in the process. But we’ve seen this story before. Fighters such as Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva come to mind. They once ruled the promotion with an iron fist only to go on a bad slump toward the tail-end of their UFC careers.
But this just doesn’t feel like that…at least not yet.
Adesanya is always one big shot away from getting back into the winner’s circle and at 36 years of age I wouldn’t go as far as calling him washed up just yet. Will he ever fight for a title again? There is no telling, but we have to look no further than his good friend Alexander Volkanaovski as an example of anything being possible.
“The Great” seemed to headed toward a decline after losing three of four including consecutive devastating knockout defeats at the hands of Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria. And in the blink of an eye he bounced back to reclaim the Featherweight title and added a successful title defense for good measure.
Adesanya has a long way to work his toward the top, but a good starting point could be against Reinier de Ridder, who is also on a bit of a slump himself having lost his last two UFC fights. While de Ridder doesn’t have the biggest name in the business, he has enough of it to make it a marketable fight against Adesanya as a co-main event to a Fight Night card.
For complete UFC Seattle results and play-by-play, click here.
