We were joined in studio by 2x UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya to talk about his movie Stylebender, his most recent fight, what the future holds and where is Izzy at now?
It’s always an absolute pleasure to have Izzy in the studio, and we count ourselves bloody lucky to have these sorts of chats with him.
In the chat, Izzy opened up about the loss against Sean Strickland at UFC 293, and revealed that fans won't be seeing him fight for "a long time."
“Before this fight, I was very like, ‘I know I’m on the back end of my career, so I want to do as many as I can because I know once I’m done with this, I’m going to miss it,’” he said.
“I’m trying to do as much as I can. But after this fight, and again, 14 months and four fights, it’s not just the fights, it’s the training and everything. I had injuries going into the [Alex] Pereira fight, you’ve seen that.
“I don’t make any excuses. Strickland got me on the night because he was the better fighter on the night. He did his work well. He had a good team behind him.”
He continued, “Now I’m going to take time to look after myself, and I’m not going to fight for a long time. I’m definitely not going to retire because I know me – I’m not leaving like that. I know me. But if I did, I’m fine. I don’t need to prove anything else.
“But I know what I can do and what I can change in my lifestyle to make my body adapt to where I need to be. I’m going to heal myself up. You won’t see me fight for a long time.”
Following the chat, we've seen a bunch of support for Izzy in his decision to take a break. Amongst the messages of support, was one from current UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones.
He took to social media to write, "Hey @stylebender I just want to let you know I support your decision to take a break from fighting. Taking those last three years off was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Always put YOU first brother. Protect your heart, protect your mimd & spirit. Proud of you Champ."
Adesanya concluded the chat with us, “Stay tuned. Again, I take my time. So right now, I'm going to enjoy the summer, heal myself up and when I come back, run for the hills."
Aaaand then he kicked a bottle off Bryce's head, which was a bonus.
Have a watch the full chat up top, or listen to the full poddy below.
