Israel Adesanya breaks silence on UFC retirement after 'taking time off' from fighting

He added: “I said 2027, and the r****** out there thought I actually meant that. But, you’ll see.” Since being knocked out for the first time by Alex Pereira in November 2022, Adesanya has become more realistic about his career.

After his recent defeat to Strickland, Adesanya openly discussed his future and confirmed he’s taking a break. “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 [when] I’m done with this I’m going to miss it,” he shared.

“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 Pereira fight, you’ve seen that.