Israel Adesanya‘s career is on the rocks. 1-4 in his last five, ‘Izzy’s shocking stoppage loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia last week has made many wonder if the former champion can even compete at the highest level. To be fair to Adesanya, he looked terrific in the first round, controlling the fight completely until he got caught with a stiff right by Imavov in the second, after ‘Izzy’ seemingly got eye-poked and switched stances.

And Sean Strickland‘s coach, Eric Nicksick pointed out the one mistake he thinks cost Adesanya the Imavov fight. “It’s just unfortunate man, because this is the game, right? He made a big mistake in that fight that cost him. His stance switched forward without really any offense and, you know, Imavov was able to take that space away and reacted brilliantly with that overhand. It’s a game of inches in this sport, and it’s unfortunate because you can be doing everything right all the way up to the last second. And then you have a Leon
Edwards and Kamaru Usman moment, you know what I mean,” the coach told ‘Submission Radio’ in a recent interview.

Kamaru Usman, of course, had been dominating Leon Edwards at their UFC 278 rematch. Until the very last round, where ‘Rocky’ caught ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ with a spectacular head kick (the famous ‘headshot boom’ moment) to knock Usman out and end his run as the welterweight champ and division boogeyman.

And while Adesanya-Imavov didn’t go beyond the second round, Usman-Edwards 2 is the perfect analogy for it. ‘Izzy’ was dominating Imavov until, all of a sudden, he wasn’t and found himself on the canvas. This is perhaps something Adesanya can take consolation in and makes some believe he still has it.

For his part, the Xtreme Couture head honcho feels that ‘Izzy’ needs to go on another hiatus. The same way he had done after losing to his student, Sean Strickland in 2023. While the coach didn’t take a position on whether or not Adesanya was washed up, he did think the Kiwi-Nigerian had a lot to offer fans. “So I hope he takes a little time off. I hope that we do see him back because the sport’ better with Israel in it, man,” Nicksick added. But things are not looking good for Adesanya.

The worrying common thread in Israel Adesanya’s recent losses

Of his four recent losses, three have come in a remarkably similar fashion- Adesanya looks good and then loses suddenly. It has happened often enough that it is now a trend for Adesanya. ‘Izzy’ was caught with a good one by Alex Pereira and got sent to the shadow realm. The same pattern followed when he suddenly got taken down and submitted by Dricus Du Plessis from a good, winning position.

Only Strickland had Adesanya’s number from the get-go. But that was probably a combination of ‘Tarzan’s unique, Philly Shell style and ‘Izzy’ being too surprised and bewildered by just how good Strickland was. But the rest of the recent losses show something more worrying for ‘Izzy’. It seems that his punch resistance is gone and he perhaps isn’t as sharp as he once was.

Adesanya has a counter-punching, point-striker style of fighting that relies heavily on being quicker, more athletic, and having sharper reflexes than his opponents. This means that Adesanya has to be almost perfect for the entire fight. Even one mistake, when fighting at the championship level, can mean lights out.

And that is exactly what seems to have happened to Adesanya. He looks like his old self until he momentarily isn’t and gets stopped. This is why most don’t believe Adesanya will become champion again. What do you think about Nicksick’s take on Israel Adesanya’s loss to Nassourdine Imavov?