"I want to fight more freely" - Israel Adesanya gets honest about future career plans, discusses title aspirations

Israel Adesanya recently opened up about his future career plans and addressed a potential return to the octagon.

Adesanya is undoubtedly among the biggest names in MMA today and is known for his incredible striking skills in the cage. While the former UFC middleweight champion dominated his division for years, he's now on a three-fight losing skid and isn't sure about when he'll return to action.

During a recent Q&A session at Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA in Thailand, Adesanya addressed speculations about his retirement and future fighting goals. He said:

"Whenever I'm out and about in Auckland, every day I always get the, 'Oh, are you retired? At first, I used to have to explain myself like, 'Nah, I'm just taking a break and doing other things.' But now I just go, 'Yeah, I'm retired.' Until they see me on a poster."

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Clarifying that winning the UFC championship doesn't drive him anymore, he added:

"For me, it's not about belts anymore. I got two shiny belts at home. They look good. I just want to fight. I just want to do things as I did on the way to the belt. I still fought really well when I was defending the belt, but I want to fight more freely. I want to try some risky sh*t like I used to."

Adesanya is coming off a second-round knockout loss against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Riyadh in February. Before that, he lost to Dricus du Plessis via fourth-round submission at UFC 305 in August 2024 and got outpointed over five rounds by Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September 2023.

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Israel Adesanya gets honest about a potential Sean Strickland rematch

It appears Israel Adesanya isn't looking for a rematch against Sean Strickland and recently explained why he's "moved on" from the possibility.

In an interview with Submission Radio (via @RedCorner_MMA on X), Adesanya addressed the possibility of facing Strickland again and said:

"If you want to get something done right, do it right the first time — that’s the lesson I learned. He’s doing other things in his own life; he’s made the money he wanted to make. I don’t want to be waiting around. I’ve moved on, I just wanna fight. But we'll see."

Edited by Nishant Zende.