Even though I am not watching the events of UFC anymore I do still catch the headlines after the fact and seeing that a once dominant Israel Adesanya has yet again been defeated is such a strange turn for the industry that shows how the mighty can truly fall from grace.
There was a time that Izzy was seen as the top in the world and also the best pound-for-pound fighter in all of MMA. These days he almost seems like a non-issue as far as anything is concerned yet the UFC keeps banking on him to make some sort of comeback. After 4 straight defeats, two of which have happened where he was the massive favorite to win, I think we can kind of close the book on ol' Izzy.
Because of the fact that I have gotten a bit fed up with how many UFC events there are I will admit that I didn't even know who Joe Pyfer was until today.
If you are a fan of the sport you may recall that the only reason, or the main reason why any of us even know who the hell Alex Pereira even is, was because the UFC and the MMA world at large had run out of opponents for Adesanya to fight. They dug way back to a kickboxing loss that Izzy had quite a while ago to a guy that nobody in the MMA world even knew of.
While this was a huge payday for both men, it kind of started the beginning of the end for Izzy's reign. Alex had never fought professionally in MMA before or if he did, it was at a lower level and certainly not on UFC's level. When Alex came in, fresh to the game, and KO'd Izzy in the 5th round of that fight, things kind of changed for Adesanya forever.
Did he get rocked so hard that his confidence was shot and he just couldn't do it anymore? Maybe, but to be fair to Izzy he did get his rematch and win the belt back just 5 months later. Unfortunately things would get very bad from that point forward as Izzy hasn't won a single fight since then: He's lost to Sean Strickand, Driscus Du Plessis, and at that point UFC kind of rapidly pushed him out of the scene. His past two losses against Imavov (not even going to try to spell his first name) and most recently to Joe Pyfer would have most people looking for the exit from the sport.
I have seen a few downfalls like this in my years of watching MMA but one that seems most like this is Johny Hendricks. After years of pursuing the belt he finally got it, then for some reason just lost all ability from that point forward. UFC still continued to use him for headlining minor events like Fight Nights, but once you get moved to that level and lose, you can bet that your next step is undercards and then likely getting shown the door if you don't choose to exit on your own prior to that.
I believe that if you let Dana White use you, he is going to do exactly that. He has taken so many legends and turned them into stepping stones for upcoming talent. I think that with this latest loss where Israel Adesanya was a heavy favorite to win, that Dana and Co. are likely not going to bank on him anymore. The only way he can come back from this is to have some absolutely stunning victories that involve finishes the likes of which we used to see from him prior to 2022.
Most fighters are not able to do this. Petr Yan is the only one I can think of that ever managed to come back from a losing skid and put himself back into the limelight.
honestly, I don't really care if he is able to do it or not because I think he is washed up. I hope he is able to salvage a bit of his legacy because we are already reaching a point where not many people even remember when Izzy was a dominant champion.
The event in Seattle was your usual non-major-UFC event that would not have been a PPV if those still existed.
To make matters worse about this latest loss, Israel didn't just lose, he kind of stopped fighting back and the fight was called off by Herb Dean because you aren't allowed to just lie there and endure punches for very long when it looks like you aren't even really trying to stand up anymore. I mean, sure, it isn't exactly easy to stand up with a guy that weighs as much as you do sitting in full mount on your back but then again, normal people like you and I are not professional fighters.
It's just not a good look.
What does the future hold for Izzy? well like I hinted at before the only way this guy can recover is if he manages to pull off something absolutely spectacular in his next couple of fights where he will not be a headliner anymore. I'm not talking decisive decision victories either. He's going to have to put on a show and lights out whoever he is up against next. If he doesn't do that, I think we will stop hearing his name at all in the next year or so.