UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya wasn’t exactly feeling the love for MMA in his last two fights.
Adesanya made a seamless transition from kickboxing to MMA. He was 20-0 with UFC gold and two successful title defenses. Adesanya chased greatness, going after Jan Blachowicz, who held the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. “Izzy” fell short in the title fight, losing via unanimous decision.
After a failed bid at the 205-pound title, Adesanya went back to middleweight and successfully defended his hardware against Marvin Vettori. While he ended up getting back on the winning track, Adesanya was flat out “bored.”
Adesanya Lost His Smile
Israel Adesanya spoke to ESPN and he admitted that he feels 2021 was quite lackluster for him (h/t MMAFighting.com).
“I want to get three this year,” Adesanya said. “At least, at least three fights this year. I’m not happy. Last year was my, to be honest, most lackluster year in my UFC career, I feel. It was just two fights. I went up to light heavyweight, failed that side mission, and I defended my belt at middleweight, and there’s a point in that [Vettori] fight I got bored. My [striking] coach ‘Twista’ was like, ‘Don’t get bored, Izzy. Stay in it.’ I remember he said that and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, true.’ He could notice. I don’t know what he saw, but he just noticed I switched off. I was just like, ‘Meh, this isn’t fun anymore.’ Because the guy wasn’t trying to win, he was trying to survive. I was like, I’m the one with the belt, you’re being super defensive, so yeah.”
Adesanya will be putting his 185-pound gold on the line against Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 on Feb. 12. The two first met back in Oct. 2019 and it was Adesanya who scored the second-round TKO finish.
