Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has weighed in on Israel Adesanya’s recent four-fight losing streak in mixed martial arts.
Adesanya recently suffered his fourth consecutive defeat in MMA, a TKO loss to Joe Pyfer. This marked his third straight finish loss, sparking widespread discussion and questions about whether the former middleweight champion should consider retirement.
While Israel Adesanya himself has stated he is not contemplating retirement at this time, natural concerns regarding his performance and future in the sport persist.
In a recent video, Aljamain Sterling became the latest prominent fighter to offer his perspective on what might be going wrong for “The Last Stylebender.”
Aljamain Sterling on Israel Adesanya’s Decline
“Izzy always seems to be winning these fights, and then somehow, he just ends up not,” Sterling remarked on his YouTube channel. He believes Adesanya can still compete at a high level but identified a significant change: “There’s definitely a couple of things about Izzy that I think have changed. One of those, I think, is the main thing that sticks out to me is the reflexes. I just don’t think his reaction time is quite the same as it used to be – as sharp.”
Sterling was also keen to acknowledge the performance of Adesanya’s recent opponent. “I don’t want to take anything away from Joe Pyfer. I thought he fought well. He had a rough start, but he was able to draw Izzy into fighting his style of fight, and once he did that, he was able to get his hands on him to take him down and put on the finishing touches to get him out of there.”
He further elaborated on the dynamics of the fight: “Pyfer is the bigger, stronger guy. Izzy did a good job of defending. I thought if he kept it at range, which he was doing really well in the first round, he could have honestly done that for five rounds if he had the cardio to do it. But for some reason, he decided to switch and stand in there and trade with him a little bit. The range went from being on the outside to really, really close – exactly where Pyfer needed him.” Sterling concluded by noting, “A couple of big shots that he evaded, but I thought Izzy looked really good in the first round until the second.”