LAS VEGAS — Israel Adesanya has vowed he will never fight again once he walks away from combat sports, insisting he does not want to become a former champion who cannot stay retired. The 37-year-old two-time UFC middleweight champion, now mired in a career-worst run of four straight defeats after more than 16 years as a professional, says he is intent on going out on his own terms with no regrets.
“I think, personally, after all this is said and done, every other month, maybe every three months, I’ll need or want to do something,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Not need, I don’t know. Maybe I’d want to do something that’s risky like run with the bulls. I might jump in the World Series of Poker. … See, my secret with poker is I don’t know what the f*ck I’m doing, which is my best weapon, I believe. But I’d like to do something like that, just to risk it, because I like the adrenaline. I love the adrenaline, but I guess people have a hard time leaving this life.” He added: “I’ve seen it in this game. The accolades, the spotlight. When they get done, they may come out of retirement because they don’t know what to do with themselves. I never want to be that guy, so once I’m done, I’m f*cking done.”
Combat sports is filled with former stars who either hung on too long or never fully committed to calling it a career, from former UFC champions Chuck Liddell, B.J. Penn and Conor McGregor to boxing megastar Tyson Fury. Adesanya will go down in history as one of the best ever to compete at 185 pounds, but runs the risk of overstaying his welcome with recent losses to Joe Pyfer, Nassourdine Imavov and Dricus du Plessis, all of whom beat him inside the distance.
Adesanya said the responsibility of being champion previously forced him to pass on major opportunities. “Just the responsibility of being the champ,” Adesanya said. “The example I’ll give, I won’t name drop, but I got offered two roles in really big movies, and I turned them down because I had two different title defenses to do. Now, a role possibly just came up, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we can work around you,’ this and that, and again, I’m not fighting four times a year this time. So I want to do, like, twice a year, you know?” He credited conversations with Georges St-Pierre — who he described as his “Fairy Godmother” who “just pops up at the most random places” — for perspective, adding: “He’s retired and he’s done it, clocked the game at the highest level. So for me, when he tells me something, I listen. It holds weight.” Adesanya said that reassurance, alongside content and travel plans, has convinced him he will be fine when fighting ends: “I don’t need to be the guy who needs to fight.”