‘Boxing Model Has Made It a Bad Thing’- Israel Adesanya Criticizes Boxing Sport After UFC 259 Loss

UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, spoke out following his first loss in MMA and touched on his title bout. ‘The Last Stylebender’ was chasing greatness and looked to become the first undefeated two-division UFC champion on the roster. However, things didn’t quite pan out as Jan Blachowicz successfully defended his undisputed light heavyweight title against the 185-pound champion.

The bout was a technical battle right from the get-go, as both men looked to implement their comprehensive game plan. The fight played out on the feet for the majority of the first three rounds before Blachowicz changed things around. The Polish champion began grounding Adesanya at will and ended up sweeping the scorecards towards the end of the fight.

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However, he felt that the loss was being magnified due to the boxing model.

Israel Adesanya trashes the boxing model while reflecting on his fight

‘The Last Stylebender’ went in on his performance and dissected certain things that he was looking for in the fight. Chiefly, he would also comment on how boxing has made losing a taboo subject by virtue of the way the sport is structured. Adesanya’s analysis and self-reflection come in as a major reason why he’s beloved by fans of the sport.

He said, I feel like the boxing model has made it a bad thing to lose. Yeah, it sucks losing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like the end of the world. Like I said, I lost before in the past and like my friend VDK, rest in peace, I’ve lost many times but I remain undefeated. Like right now, me and my team are just excited to get back home and work on certain little details.”

“I was drawing him out, but he was trying to parry my jab and I had an opening for my change-up and yeah, he had good defense, he had an answer for a lot of things I was throwing at him. I caught him a few times, I didn’t hurt him but he didn’t hurt me either. But yeah, it is what it is.”

Israel Adesanya is looking to get back to the middleweight division and continue dispatching contenders. It seems as though the 185-pound weight class is ideal for his performance when looking at the way he’s fought the top contenders. Moreover, there is no shortage of marquee names waiting in the wings to put together a title run at middleweight.

What do you make of ‘The Last Stylebender’s comments?