Israel Adesanya nearly fought twice in 2025. |
Getty/UFC
If the stars had aligned, Israel
Adesanya would have returned to the Octagon a little sooner
than expected.
The former middleweight champion will face Joe Pyfer in
the
UFC Seattle headliner on March 28 at Climate Pledge Arena. “The
Last Stylebender” hasn’t been in action since suffering a
second-round technical knockout defeat against Nassourdine
Imavov at UFC
Saudi Arabia last February.
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On his YouTube channel, Adesanya revealed that he had been ready to
accept a short-notice booking against Reinier
de Ridder in October before an injury suffered in training
removed him from consideration.
“I was going to fight last year, but then I got injured in the gym,
and then that opportunity got taken away. It was a short-notice
fight, as well. And I’ve never done one of those, so that would
have been exciting,” Adesanya said.
De Ridder was scheduled to face fellow middleweight contender
Anthony
Hernandez in the UFC
Vancouver main event before “Fluffy” withdrew from the event
due to injury. Ultimately, it was Brendan
Allen, not Adesanya, who stepped in to accept the assignment.
Allen would go on to earn a fourth-round stoppage victory against
the former ONE
Championship two-division title holder.
“RDR. On five weeks’ notice, six weeks’ notice,” Adesanya said. “I
was already training, so I was getting ready for a fight. So it
would have been like, ‘Right, I’ve never done this before. You’re
fit. Hop in there.’ But then that moment got taken away from me.
But that’s, in hindsight, the best thing. Even though I wasn’t
happy with it then, it was the best thing.”
The Desire to Shine
Instead, Adesanya will look to right the ship against Pyfer, a
Dana White’s Contender Series alum who has been victorious in
six of his seven Octagon apperances. Though Adesdanya has lost four
of his last five fights, the passion to compete still burns strong
within the Nigerian-born Kiwi.
“I want to shine,” Adesanya said. “That’s the thing, I always want
to shine. And I will shine. So, I can’t wait. I know what I can do,
and I feel like people haven’t seen my full array of skills yet. I
just want to show off a lot of skills that I haven’t showed off
yet. So, in these fights, not that I’m going to be looking for
them, but you’ll see. You’ll see me do things I’ve never done
before, because I feel like they’ll be presented to me.”