Israel
Adesanya partially blames an eye poke for his loss against
Nassourdine
Imavov.
Adesanya headlined UFC Saudi Arabia against Imavov in February
2025. “The Last Stylebender” was going toe-to-toe against Imavov
before abruptly getting finished early in the second round.
Adesanya was poked in the eye moments before Imavov landed the
finishing sequence. However, the former middleweight champion
brushed it aside and immediately resumed the action.
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Adesanya recently revealed that his focus was compromised after
getting eye poked. The Nigerian-born Kiwi admits that he should
have taken his allotted to compose himself before continuing.
Live and Learn
“The last fight, I got eye poked,” Adesanya told ESPN. “I should have taken my time and reset
properly. But I wanted to carry on the work I was doing and not let
him get any time to rest. And focus, it just wavers. No matter what
level you are, you can never master it. I should have just locked
in right there, taken my time, re-centered, reset, and gone back to
doing what I was doing. You live and you learn.”
The loss against Imavov was Adesanya’s third consecutive loss.
Adesanya (24-5) is now scheduled to fight Joe Pyfer
(15-3) at
UFC Seattle on March 28 at the Climate Pledge Arena. Meanwhile,
Pyfer is 6-1 in the
UFC and riding a three-fight winning streak going into the
toughest test of his career to date.