There is hardly any doubt about the excellence of the former middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya. The only one to win the 185lbs belt twice, ‘The Last Airbender’s career hasn’t been without his own set of setbacks. His last loss against Sean Strickland seemingly took a toll on him, but his parents and his team always had his back.

As the UFC always does, they released another edition of their ‘Countdown’ videos for the upcoming UFC 305 pay-per-view. That video gave us a closer look at the backstage environment after what happened in the aftermath of Israel Adesanya’s loss at UFC 293. Things were a bit dull for the Nigerian-born Kiwi superstar.

Israel Adesanya opens up on losing his title for a second time

To reach success, it’s essential to have a support system, and for Israel Adesanya, it was his parents and his team. Having become a legend in this sport already, ‘Izzy’ still had more to do. He wasn’t settling for anything yet, and that showed because Sean Strickland’s unanimous decision victory over him weighed heavily on the former 2-time champion. Adesanya felt as if he couldn’t meet certain expectations as he put his head on his coach, Eugene Bareman‘s shoulder in sorrow in the aftermath of UFC 293.

“I hate losing. Don’t get me wrong. I f***ing hate losing, I just felt like I let my people down. I wanted to show them something special [and] I felt like I let them down. That was the hardest thing for me,” Israel Adesanya stated on the ‘UFC 305 Countdown’ video. A visibly sad ‘Izzy’ would later find his mother approaching him, trying to keep his spirits up by reminding him that he’s already reached a certain stage in his career that most fighters could only dream of.

“If you put your gloves down today, you’re set for life. So don’t let anything bother you,” Israel Adesanya’s mother stated. However, the former 2-time champion wasn’t going to stay in that emotional state for long as he addressed the loopholes in his game during his time away after UFC 293. “But again, these are things in hindsight, because you have to do an analysis and be honest with yourself about things you need to change,” Adesanya added.

As he approaches his return at UFC 305, Israel Adesanya’s batteries have recharged, and guess what? Dricus du Plessis could be up for a tough outing, heading into his first title because ‘Izzy’ had already mentioned in the past that he manifested this fight.

‘The Last Stylebender’ wants to take Dricus du Plessis’ “head off”

Israel Adesanya’s performance in his last fight was rather underwhelming. But as we’ve mentioned already, he’s addressed his mistakes and in a recent interview, he sounded pretty confident about his chances against Dricus du Plessis. They already have some serious beef between them due to the reigning champion’s ‘real African’ comments last year, and Adesanya is looking to bring the fight to the South African.

“You said I’m looking to be the first three-time UFC middleweight champion [but] I’m not looking to do that. I’m looking to take his head off,” Israel Adesanya stated recently on ‘The Rock’ podcast. “I feel different. So, I just wanna go in there, and I have nothing to lose. That keeps me free. I’ve already been the champion once.” Adesanya had mentioned previously in his last fight when Sean Strickland was the challenger that ‘Tarzan’ had nothing to lose. This time, it is he who has nothing to lose.

Becoming the second 3-time UFC champion (after Randy Couture) doesn’t sound bad, and it will be interesting to see how Israel Adesanya fares in his comeback fight. What do you predict is going to happen at UFC 305? Let us know in the comments below.