In many ways, former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, was seen as the successor to 185-pound legend, Anderson Silva
, despite accusations of being “overrated.” Unfortunately, it appears “The Last Stylebender” is ending his MMA career in the same fashion as “The Spider.”Adesanya, 36, has dropped four straight and five of his last six, getting finished in four of those losses. So what’s keeping the former kickboxer from calling it a career?
His ego.
“Even if we take a hit, like I said, four
in a row for me, the equity might be down, but we’re still up over most people who’ve come into this game,” Adesanya told Demetrious Johnson on YouTube (transcribed by Bloody Elbow). “That’s something I don’t want to rest on… my ego is very tied into this; I know what I can do still. For me, I don’t want this to be the writing of my story… this is not how I want to conclude this chapter of my life.”
His most recent chapter ended with a technical knockout loss to Joe Pyfer in Seattle.
Adesanya (24-6) went 9-0 under the UFC banner before moving up to light heavyweight, where he fell to Jan Blachowicz in his bid to become double-champ. He later returned to middleweight and rattled off three more title defenses before his wars against longtime rival Alex Pereira, which appeared to signal the beginning of the end.
“The Last Stylebender” is currently unbooked at the time of this writing.
