- Israel Adesanya left the media and the fans a quick and straightforward message following his UFC 293 defeat to Sean Strickland
- An immediate Strickland vs. Adesanya rematch could be in the works soon
Now-former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya decided not to dwell on the negative and just enjoy life despite his devastating title fight loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.
Izzy just wants to chill
Speaking to reporters in his post-fighter press conference, Adesanya kept his statement short and simple. According to “The Last Stylebender,” things did not play out the way he planned it but he didn’t want to talk about it much, at least at this point. Instead, Izzy let his coach Eugene Bareman to address the media.
“I had a different plan for this but again life throws curveballs at you,” Adesanya pointed out. “Win or lose, I wasn’t going to say much anyway but right now, I lost tonight to the better man on the night. I just want to go and be with people who care about me — my team and they’re waiting for me, so I’m going to do that.
“But I will leave you in the capable hands of a man who is much smarter than me, I’ll admit this on worldwide national media, I’ll leave you with Eugene Bareman. He’ll handle this for the first time. I want to go chill, have some breakfast, build my family and till next time,” he continued.
😎💕
I hate loosing, but I love living. What a life‼️ pic.twitter.com/PQ6R0YwZ56— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) September 10, 2023
A rematch is already approved
UFC president Dana White got honest about his take on Adesanya’s performance at UFC 293. The UFC boss did not shy away from suggesting that Izzy did not look like his old self against Strickland and did nothing to turn things around up to the final second of the fight.
White then flat-out insists that a rematch between Adesanya and Strickland should “absolutely” happen because he doesn’t see any reason why it shouldn’t.
