🎰 Israel Adesanya provides retirement update: ‘I can see the finish line’

Israel Adesanya understands that he is approaching the end of his combat sports career.

The former two-time UFC middleweight champion appears to be past his peak at this point.

‘Stylebender’ has lost three fights in a row ahead of his return to action at UFC Seattle on March 28.

A loss against Joe Pyfer would be detrimental to his career, but it won’t push Israel Adesanya into retirement.

Israel Adesanya’s retirement timeline

Israel Adesanya says fans can expect to see him fight about 10 more times before retiring.

To make that happen, the 36-year-old will have to get very busy during the next few years.

“Less than 10,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel when talking about how many fights he has left.

“I know it’s less than 10. It can’t be more than 10. So if I fight now, I fight one more time towards the end of the year, maybe. That’s two fights. If I do two fights a year, next year I can still fight.

“2028 is going to be like, I don’t know yet. I can’t see past 2027. I don’t know. I don’t think that far ahead at the moment. I do glance at it, and I just know I’m on the tail end. I can see the finish line. I’ve been seeing the finish line in the distance, but now it’s closer.”

Israel Adesanya’s original comeback fight fell through

Israel Adesanya hasn’t fought since suffering a shock KO loss to Nᴀssourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia last February 2025.

The 185lb legend recently revealed his return was originally planned for a short-notice fight that fell through.

“I was going to fight last year, but then I got injured in the gym, and then that opportunity got taken away,” Adesanya said. “It was a short notice fight as well, and I’ve never done one of those so that would have been exciting.”

Adesanya went on to reveal that it was Reinier de Ridder that he was preparing to face on five or six weeks’ notice.

Although he didn’t name a specific date, Anthony Hernandez withdrew from his UFC Vancouver main event with de Ridder that was scheduled for October, so it seems likely he was going to fill in on that card.

“That moment got taken away from me, but that’s, in hindsight, the best thing even though I wasn’t happy with it then,” Adesanya reflected.