Outside Source
Israel Adesanya nearly fought twice in 2025. | Getty/UFC
If the stars had aligned, Israel Adesanya would have returned to the Octagon a little sooner than expected.
The former middleweight champion will face Joe Pyfer in the UFC Seattle headliner on March 28 at Climate Pledge Arena. “The Last Stylebender” hasn’t been in action since suffering a second-round technical knockout defeat against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia last February.
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On his YouTube channel, Adesanya revealed that he had been ready to accept a short-notice booking against Reinier de Ridder in October before an injury suffered in training removed him from consideration.
“I was going to fight last year, but then I got injured in the gym, and then that opportunity got taken away. It was a short-notice fight, as well. And I’ve never done one of those, so that would have been exciting,” Adesanya said.
De Ridder was scheduled to face fellow middleweight contender Anthony Hernandez in the UFC Vancouver main event before “Fluffy” withdrew from the event due to injury. Ultimately, it was Brendan Allen, not Adesanya, who stepped in to accept the assignment. Allen would go on to earn a fourth-round stoppage victory against the former ONE Championship two-division title holder.
“RDR. On five weeks’ notice, six weeks’ notice,” Adesanya said. “I was already training, so I was getting ready for a fight. So it would have been like, ‘Right, I’ve never done this before. You’re fit. Hop in there.’ But then that moment got taken away from me. But that’s, in hindsight, the best thing. Even though I wasn’t happy with it then, it was the best thing.”
The Desire to Shine
Instead, Adesanya will look to right the ship against Pyfer, a Dana White’s Contender Series alum who has been victorious in six of his seven Octagon apperances. Though Adesdanya has lost four of his last five fights, the passion to compete still burns strong within the Nigerian-born Kiwi.
“I want to shine,” Adesanya said. “That’s the thing, I always want to shine. And I will shine. So, I can’t wait. I know what I can do, and I feel like people haven’t seen my full array of skills yet. I just want to show off a lot of skills that I haven’t showed off yet. So, in these fights, not that I’m going to be looking for them, but you’ll see. You’ll see me do things I’ve never done before, because I feel like they’ll be presented to me.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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