Israel Adesanya only has a few years left in his MMA career.

Back in August, Adesanya challenged Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight title at UFC 305, losing by fourth-round submission. The loss was Adesanya’s second in a row (affer dropping the title to Sean Strickland in 2023) and marked a dramatic shift for the long-time champion as he is now well outside the middleweight title picture for the first time in five years. But while many fighters might be disheartened by this change of circumstance, Adesanya appears to be making the best of things.

“I actually have no idea, that’s the thing. And it’s nice to know that,” Adesanya said when asked where he goes next while on the FLAGRANT podcast. “I’ve never felt that when people talk about — Matt Hughes was one of the first people I heard … talk about when he lost the belt he felt this pressure come off. ‘Oh, I’m not the champ anymore.’ But I never felt that, because I was the champ for so long and then when I lost it at MSG I was kind of like, ‘F*ck, let’s do it again.’

“Even when I lost it to Strickland I felt there was a target on my back, and there still is, but after this fight I was kind of like, meh. I wasn’t attached to the result. I just wanted to show off and I wanted to fight. I did. So now I’m in a spot where it’s like, who do I fight, when do I fight? Because I’m only doing main events, five rounders, and title fights. That’s all I’ve done for the last how many years. But it’s kind of nice to not have that be the focus now. Just fight, show off, make money. We’ll see. I’m excited.”

Adesanya is one of the biggest stars in the promotion and held the middleweight title from 2019 until 2022 for his first title reign. He lost the belt to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 but then reclaimed the title in their rematch five months later, before again dropping the belt to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.

Adesanya’s five successful title defenses puts him behind only UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva in middleweight history, but at 35 years old it’s fair to question whether he’ll ever get back to the title to start a record-breaking third title reign. But for Adesanya, that’s not really the goal right now. Instead, he wants to focus on checking some things off his to-do list when it comes to MMA.

“I’ve said this already, with what I’ve already done in this game, a lot of people don’t even get to the belt, get to the UFC,” Adesanya said. “I’ve done it twice. Still the only two-time middleweight champion. If what I’ve already done won’t make me happy, what will?

“I’m happy but I’m not content. I still have a few things I want to try, a few moves I want to do. … I look forward to creating those. That’s the artist in me. Again, submission! I know I’m going to choke a motherf*cker out. I know I’m going to get one of those.”

And according to “The Last Stylebender,” he’s still got some time to do those things he wants to do. Though Adesanya said when he was younger he thought he’d be retired by now, at this point he believes there’s a few good years left in him.

“You’ve got to break up with fighting before fighting breaks up with you,” Adesanya said.

“… When will I? I don’t know. I said at 20-something, ‘When I’m 34 I’m done with this game.’ I’m 35 now. But I know I’m over the halfway point and I’m definitely a few years away, maybe three years away. But who knows? I know I don’t want to be fighting at 40.”

TOP STORIES

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Volk. Alexander Volkanovski “there’s no talks to that at all” about fighting Diego Lopes next.

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Mighty Mouse. Demetrious Johnson talks about his career and how underpaid he was by the UFC.

VIDEO STEW

MMA Fighting Rankings Show.

Between the Links.

Demetrious Johnson interview.

Most unique UFC finishes ever.

Behind the scenes at UFC 309.

Jack Slack talking about Lone’er Kavanagh.

FLAVOR IN YOUR EAR

No Bets Barred.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Corey Anderson would like to fight.

Speaking it into existence.

Rampage upset with the fans.

Call outs.

My GOAT.

Training.

UFC 310 fight poster.

Good summary of Mark Hunt’s appeal.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Muhammad Mokaev (12-0, 1 NC) vs. Luthando Biko (12-3); Brace CF 91, Dec. 13

Taisei Sakuraba (0-0) vs. Yusuke Yachi (27-14); RIZIN DECADE, Dec. 31.

Grant Dawson (22-2-1) vs. Diego Ferreira (19-5); UFC 311, Jan. 18

FINAL THOUGHTS

I absolutely love Izzy’s perspective on this. Sometimes it doesn’t need to be about getting back to the belt and that whole thing. He’s done plenty in his career and taking this time to simply sit back and enjoy the last few years is a great idea. Like after you beat the video game, you go back and do all the side quests.

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.

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