Israel Adesanya was unfairly accused of being involved in a ‘road rage’ incident just a few weeks ago. We say unfairly accused because of how the whole affair actually played out. A clip that went viral showed Adesanya being cursed out by a stranger on the street. And far from raging on the belligerent stranger, ‘Izzy’ was remarkably composed, and didn’t take the bait from the guy throwing insults and racial slurs at him.

And the reason the former middleweight champ showed so much restraint is simple – he didn’t want to risk killing the guy and having a murder charge thrown at him.

“I was just like ‘okay, if this guy breaches my space then I have to attack him.’ But again I had a good day, I was in a good mental space and I gave him a lot of grace. ‘Cuz one of our teammates got killed by like senseless street violence… So in the moment I knew if I hit this guy he’s going to hit his head, ‘cuz it’s a slopey street. He’s going to fall down, hit his head on the concrete, probably bleed out or something. And then I get put in jail and they’re going to throw the book at me,” he told Adam Carolla on the latter’s podcast.

Thankfully Adesanya, as he admitted, was in a good mental space on that fateful day, which was lucky for both the stranger and ‘Izzy’ himself. After all, the guy did seem to be doing his best to try and provoke Israel Adesanya into hitting him, perhaps in hopes of suing the former champ for a pretty packet. However, if ‘Izzy’ had indeed granted him his wish, he may have possibly lost his life.

And now the question on everyone’s mind is- when will Adesanya be back? After all, he is one of the most active fighters in the promotion, but there is no clear opponent for him on offer at the moment. This is why some felt that the former champ may choose to wait until champ Dricus Du Plessis rematches Sean Strickland (which is not yet scheduled); and Whittaker-Chimaev conclude their business on UFC 308. But the superstar is unwilling to wait that long as he told Carolla in the same interview.

Israel Adesanya looking to fight in late ’24, early ’25

Something seems wrong with the world because Israel Adesanya isn’t the middleweight champ. ‘Izzy’, of course, failed to win back his title against Dricus Du Plessis on UFC 305 in August, and seems to be in a no-man’s-land. After all, most of the top ten contenders are either busy or have already been dealt with by the Kiwi-Nigerian. This leaves him with few options for his next fight, especially because of how soon he wants to fight again.

“I don’t think it’s [rematch with Du Plessis is] gonna be immediately. I’d rather just fight, not really for the belt, just fight for fighting sake… At the moment, I wanna fight one more time before the end of this year or early next year, but I don’t know yet,” Adesanya said.

At the moment, ‘Izzy’ seems to have only two real names he could fight. Since the very top-ranked guys are gearing up for their own fights, #4 ranked Nassourdine Imavov seems the best candidate for the former champ’s bounce-back fight. #5 ranked Caio Borralho is also in contention, but if it’s a choice between Imavov and Borralho, the better choice seems quite clearly to be the former. Who would you like to see Israel Adesanya fight next?