Israel Adesanya wants to walk away from the fight game with no regrets.
The two-time UFC middleweight champion is mired in a career-worst slump with losses in his past four outings, and at 37 with over 16 years or professional combat sports under his belt, he knows his time is coming to an end. However, Adesanya is intent on going out on his own terms, with the intention to leave zero chance of him feeling that itch to compete again.
“I think, personally, after all this is said and done, every other month, maybe every three months, I’ll need or want to do something,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Not need, I don’t know. Maybe I’d want to do something that’s risky like run with the bulls. I might jump in the World Series of Poker. … See, my secret with poker is I don’t know what the f*ck I’m doing, which is my best weapon, I believe. But I’d like to do something like that, just to risk it, because I like the adrenaline. I love the adrenaline, but I guess people have a hard time leaving this life.
“I’ve seen it in this game. The accolades, the spotlight. When they get done, they may come out of retirement because they don’t know what to do with themselves. I never want to be that guy, so once I’m done, I’m f*cking done.”
Combat sports is filled with former stars who either hung on too long or never fully committed to calling it a career, from former UFC champions like Chuck Liddell, B.J. Penn, and Conor McGregor, to boxing megastars like Tyson Fury. Adesanya will go down in history as one of the best ever to compete at 185 pounds, but runs the risk of overstaying his welcome with recent losses to Joe Pyfer, Nassourdine Imavov, and Dricus du Plessis, all of whom beat Adesanya inside the distance.
Adesanya is looking forward to having more free time when he’s done fighting, especially considering the opportunities he passed on in his prime.
“Just the responsibility of being the champ,” Adesanya said. “The example I’ll give, I won’t name drop, but I got offered two roles in really big movies, and I turned them down because I had two different title defenses to do. Now, a role possibly just came up, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we can work around you,’ this and that, and again, I’m not fighting four times a year this time. So I want to do, like, twice a year, you know?
“And also talking to Georges [St-Pierre], he’s like my Fairy Godmother, he just pops up at the most random places. … He’ll just drop gems and just kind of let you know where you are, because not many have been to where we’ve been, so they can’t relate, and Georges can. He’s retired and he’s done it, clocked the game at the highest level. So for me, when he tells me something, I listen. It holds weight. So now after talking to him and also consulting with my own self, I kind of feel like I have opportunities now. Doing stuff like this, so much content we filmed, more that we can film, we’re going to be traveling the next few weeks and then I’ll just line some shit up. It’s fun and it kind of gives me the reassurance that I’ll be OK after this shit is over, like, I don’t need to be the guy who needs to fight.”
