Israel Adesanya reveals the lowest point of his MMA career, and it wasn’t his lone loss

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (23-1) remains unbeaten in the 185-pound division, and only has one loss on his professional record.

The lone blemish on his professional MMA resume came in a light heavyweight title bout. He was defeated by Jan Blachowicz via unanimous decision at UFC 259 in March 2021. One might think his only defeat may have been the lowest point in Adesanya’s MMA career, but it wasn’t.

“It’s not the Jan fight, surprisingly. Actually, it wasn’t the Jan fight,” Adesanya said on his YouTube Channel. “If I’m being honest, the [Yoel] Romero fight. That was the first time people were like, awe, boring.”

“After that that I was like, I was fighting. He was just standing there. Why are you blaming me,” he said. “The fans turned on me in a way. And I was like, what? Now they’re saying I’m shit.”

The Romero fight was Adesanya’s first title defense after knocking out Robert Whittaker to win the 185-pound championship. In his next outing, following the Romero fight, he delivered a second-round knockout of Paulo Costa.

Adesanya faces former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira in the UFC 281 main event on November 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Pereira holds two wins over Adesanya in kickboxing, including a knockout in their rematch.

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