UFC: Israel Adesanya 'cannot stay the king forever' after Dricus du Plessis defeat, says Michael Bisping

TNT Sports expert Michael Bisping has said that Israel Adesanya “cannot stay the king” of the UFC middleweight division forever. 

Adesanya lost the third fight of his last four to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305, with the South African submitting him in the fourth round via rear-naked choke. 

Du Plessis had rocked Adesanya with a right hook before going for the stoppage on the ground, and the fight was called off three minutes and 38 seconds into the fourth in Perth. 

Bisping, himself a former UFC middleweight champion, said that the defeat could signal the start of Adesanya’s decline, with him now 35 years old and on a losing streak. 

“The reality is - and this is a crazy stat - Izzy has lost three out of his last four fights, which is a million light-years away from the Israel Adesanya that was dominating the entire division,” Bisping explained on TNT Sports' UFC Review Show. 

“Granted, to Alex Pereira, and he did avenge that loss, and then Sean Strickland, and maybe he did have an off night; maybe he was complacent. But then he loses the very next one as well. History is showing itself and repeating itself.

“You cannot stay the king forever. What goes up, must come down. It does look like that is what we’re starting to see. He’s lost three of his last four - granted, to fantastic opponents - but before that, he was on a ridiculous run, dominating everybody and looking really good when he did it. 

“There’s no shame to stay on top that long for what he did and to have the reign that he did. He should be incredibly proud. I did suspect that maybe he was going to retire. I do know, though, that the gloves do feel tight, and your hands are extremely warm, so I was like, ‘Are his hands just hot and he’s taking his gloves off?’. 

“Of course, he did the whole ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ bit with the ‘I’m not leaving’. He kept everybody guessing, but I still think there’s some fun fights for Adesanya to have.”

Bisping continued: “Will he [Adesanya] be the champion again? That’s a really big question and that’s a tough ask.

“But he has got large paydays to still collect; he’s got some fun fights. I don’t know what they are, maybe he can bounce around the light-heavyweight division or the middleweight division. There’s still some mileage left in the career of Israel Adesanya, but will be the champ? I really don’t know about that.”

Fellow TNT Sports pundit Nick Peet also believes that Adesanya’s dominance at the top of the middleweight division could be coming to an end. 

Adesanya was beaten by TKO by Pereira at UFC 281 in New York in November 2022, but he avenged that defeat at UFC 287 with a knockout finish. 

He lost his title again to Strickland at UFC 293 in Sydney via unanimous decision before losing out to Du Plessis, who had taken the championship off Strickland at UFC 297 via split decision. 

“It felt like a storyline I’ve heard so many times before over the last 25 years covering this game,” Peet said on the Review Show.

“Unfortunately even the great ones are the last to know when they are coming down the mountain, and make no mistake, Izzy is officially coming down the mountain. 

“Last time out, when he lost the title in Sydney, the age-old excuse was 'It just wasn’t my day, I had a bad day at the office.' That is not a good rhetoric to have when you’ve been a champion for so long.

“Ultimately there came a point in the fight where Israel Adesanya took the easy way out. I’m not saying that easily because I’m a huge Izzy fan, but Dricus broke him. He visibly broke him in there. 

“Up until they were finished, that cuffing right hand which made Izzy stumble away, he fell against the fence and Dricus closed in with three violent rights which ultimately dropped him. Up until that sequence of events, Izzy looked great. His hands were down; he was looking great, ripping to the body, lovely spear and jab. He seemed to be controlling the pace heading into that fourth round. Dricus looked exhausted, sucking in air. Izzy was standing there all composed, not even heavy breathing. 

“Everything was right until everything went wrong. Unfortunately, Izzy is in a place right now where, psychologically, he’s in a habit of losing. Breaking that habit when you’re 35 years of age, when you’ve achieved all he has, is almost impossible.”

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