Izzy Coach: DDP Loss ‘Easier To Take Than The Strickland One’

Israel Adesanya’s coach breaks down his pupil’s loss at UFC 305 and points to fatigue as the culprit in their latest big defeat.

Israel Adesanya suffered a tough loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. But according to his coach, it was nowhere near as tough as his defeat against Sean Strickland a year ago.

Adesanya has now lost two fights in a row for the first time in his MMA career. He’s lost his shot at regaining his middleweight title, and his path at 185 pounds is unclear for the first time in several years. It’s not all bad news, though. “The Last Stylebender” looked good in the cage against Du Plessis and was in the fight working for a finish of his own before getting submitted in the fourth round.

Speaking to the WTFATG podcast, City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman says this loss to “Stillknocks” makes more sense to Izzy than the Strickland loss, and it comes down to one big factor: fatigue.

“You can’t take anything away from Dricus, he’s got under-rated defense, under-rated offense,” Bareman said. “People are so used to watching some of the prettiest and technical strikers that they immediately discredit other people that don’t look like that that blueprint. They fail to see the genius and what he’s doing.

“It was a very close fight, and at the end of the day Israel fatigued,” he continued. “I’m not sure if Israel’s ever been submitted, I can’t remember but I don’t think he has. That position, Israel’s done that a thousand times and got out of it a thousand times. What causes that is the opponent putting pressure on you, pushing you to a place where you’re fatigued.”

“You know what to do, but your brain’s not working and your body’s not responding because you’re so fatigued. That’s fighting, that’s what makes it such an interesting sport is that you’re working at the highest level under all this duress and sometimes it gets the better of you and it got the better of Israel.”

Adesanya seemed to be in good spirits after the Du Plessis loss, despite all the pressure on him to earn a victory. Bareman explained what made this one easier to swallow than his previous loss to Sean Strickland.

“The Strickland loss, he’ll never get over,” Bareman said. “You just fought badly and it was unexplainable. It’s very hard to untangle, it’s not measurable what caused it, you just go down a rabbit hole of a million things.”

“But the Dricus fight, he was doing well, it was a great contest and he got outmaneuvered, he got outdone. He can figure out exactly what happened, follow the path, figure out went wrong, and it’s very traceable. Those losses are much more easy to figure out rather than the unexplained sort of losses that kind of leave you scratching your head a little bit.”

“So yeah, he’s fine in that respect,” he concluded. “You hate any losses, but trust me this one’s a lot easier to take than the Strickland one.”

Adesanya is currently in his home country of Nigeria spending time with his people and letting them inspire his flame. There’s no timetable for a UFC return, but a return will happen. Which “Stylebender” will show up next remains to be seen.