Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping reacted to Israel Adesanya’s loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305 and gave a harsh opinion on Adesanya’s future.
Bisping Thinks Israel Adesanya Is “More Than Likely Done”
Despite his fight with du Plessis being extremely close and back and forth, questions have risen around what’s next for Adesanya. In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Bisping analyzed Adesanya’s performance but questioned his fighting future;
“He looked great, he had moments of brilliance, certainly in Round 3 when he was piecing Dricus du Plessis up on the feet. But ultimately, he lost the fight. and we gotta ask the question, is Izzy done? Is his championship days over? Because the answer to that one is more than likely,”
“It’s a Tough Reality”
The nature of the sport is something all fans know too well, watching the declines of their favorite fighters. Bisping feels that this may be a continuing trend for Adesanya,
“It’s a tough reality. Fight sports is a b****, they don’t care. Israel Adesanya had moments of brilliance, he looked really good, he looked to be in great shape. He had a bit more muscle on him, he took this fight seriously, went out there, and got beat. The last one, he got beat against Sean Strickland. Two fights before that, he lost to Alex Pereira, granted he came back and he got revenge against Alex Pereira,” Bisping continued.
“When you look at the history, the track record, Israel Adesanya has now lost three of his last four fights. That’s a far cry from the championship run that he went on where he was stopping everybody, defending the belt in 12 consecutive title fights. That’s an insane amount of pressure, stress on the body, physically and mentally, a big burden to carry.”
These are all good points made by Bisping and likely all have attributed in their own way to slowly deteriorating Adesanya.
“You Only Have One Peak”
Bisping went further into his thoughts, bringing up another underrated aspect that could explain why Adesanya may have lost his drive,
“Of course that comes with massive paydays. The man’s a multimillionaire, smashed it out of the park, did what he set out to do….”
When answering the question of whether this was the downfall of Adesanya, Bisping had a clear answer.
“Yeah, probably. You only have one peak, you don’t have two, that’s why it’s called the peak. And when you look throughout combat sports history, it’s what always happens.”
Quotes via BJPenn
Michael Bisping feels that Israel Adesanya has peaked as a fighter and will now only start to decline, despite acknowledging that he had a solid performance against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305. Adesanya did take his gloves off in the cage but quoted the famous line from ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ stating that he’s “not f**king leaving” and will return. He solidified this claim after the fight, saying he hopes to return within three months. Whether Adesanya returns that quickly will later be seen, but it’ll be interesting to see who he fights and how he performs when he does.
Watch Michael Bisping’s full reaction to Adesanya’s loss below:
Do you agree with Michael Bisping that Israel Adesanya is done fighting for titles? Or do you think Izzy still has championship potential left in him? Let us know in the comments below!
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