UFC Saudi Arabia didn’t go Israel Adesanya’s way. The former two-time middleweight champion suffered his first career non-title MMA loss on Saturday courtesy of a Nassourdine Imavov second-round knockout in the main event at Anb Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Adesanya has now lost three consecutive fights and is just 1-4 over his past five UFC bouts. “The Last Stylebender” shared his immediate reaction with ESPN on the event’s post-fight show following his latest setback.
“Disappointing,” Adesanya said. “My fans, my team — my team feel proud of me because of the work I put into this, but yeah, it’s just the thrill and agony.”
Adesanya, 35, appeared to be in great shape as the bout started. Outside of a clean uppercut from Imavov toward the end of Round 1, Adesanya looked as sharp as ever, winning the round on all three judges’ scorecards.
After taking an extended hiatus for most of 2024 then failing to recapture his title against current UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, Adesanya entered into a 16-week camp for Imavov. The plan didn’t pan out, however, and the loss now puts Adesanya in unfamiliar territory. Despite his run as a title contender likely over, the former champ could still be competitive with the best in the division. Adesanya declined to make any knee-jerk plans about his future.
“I don’t know, I have to chill then think about things,” Adesanya said. “I’ll relax first for a little bit, just to help the teammates who have fights coming up, and yeah, see what I want to do. I was going to do that anyway, but now I’m forced to. Shout out to Nassourdine for that.
“He must be excited, beat a guy like me. But again, I felt good. Round 1, I was in control of everything. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken some time. I just didn’t want him to rest because I knew he was tired, so I didn’t want him to rest. But again, [hindsight is] 20/20.
“You have to really be in it to know [what this is like],” Adesanya added. “Only a privileged few will ever get to this point and understand. To be able to feel something so great, but feel something so deep. It’s a lovely game, but it’s a stupid game at the same time.”
On the other side, Imavov now advances closer to a title shot. The performance extended the Frenchman’s win streak to four, and all of those opponents were ranked in the top 10.
Khamzat Chimaev is still the big-shark contender, circling the title waters as du Plessis readies to rematch Sean Strickland at UFC 312 on Feb. 8. But Imavov is there now as well, and he wants his shot at the belt.
“That was the goal, I told you a surprise was coming,” Imavov said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “We worked on it on the warmup, we worked on it during the whole week, and it worked.
“We knew he would come in a very good shape. That’s why he did what he did from the beginning. He was very explosive, very fast, but I had to put my wrestling on, and with the wrestling [on] the fence, my uppercut would come. My rib was hurt, but I kept wrestling just to be able to feint and be able to strike with the feint.
“I cleaned [out] the weight class in one year,” Imavov added. “Four fights, two wins against top-10 competition, two finishes against top-five competition. Next is the belt.”
UFC CEO Dana White was impressed by both headliners. Although the former champion appears to be on a downward slide, White had only positive things to say about Adesanya and hailed how impressive it was for Imavov to get the job done.
“I thought ‘Izzy’ looked incredible right up until he got caught,” White said. “Looked good, was picking him apart, stayed on the outside, takedown defense was incredible, chopping that calf kick the whole first round. He couldn’t have had a better first round, and then he got caught.
“Getting caught is getting caught. He’s 35, Imavov is 28 years old. He’s in his prime. [Adesanya] looked incredible. You couldn’t have fought a better first round than he did.”
