Israel Adesanya’s UFC journey has been filled with highs and lows, but his career is far from over — not just in his eyes, but also in the eyes of Matt Brown.
Adesanya is coming off back-to-back losses, first dropping a decision to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 before suffering a submission defeat to Dricus Du Plessis last August in an attempt to reclaim the middleweight title.
Now, he is set to face Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of the second UFC Fight Night in Saudi Arabia. When he does, Brown believes the former champion has something to prove.
“He’s still there,” Brown said on the latest episode of MMA Fighting’s The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I think him going back to feeling like he has something to prove again is going to pay a lot of dividends for him.”
Brown sees Adesanya’s mindset as a key factor in his return and believes it signals what could happen on Saturday.
“I think he just loves to compete,” Brown said. “Doesn’t really care who it’s against, and you’ve got to love that. Obviously, the UFC loves that. The fans love that. But what it tells me is that he has a good mentality of not letting other people’s opinions affect him [mentally].
“That’s a gigantic thing, especially at the level where he’s at, where everybody’s in his ear. Everybody has an opinion on what he’s doing. He’s getting pulled left and right all the time, and to be able to block all that out and stay true to being a martial artist—that’s a powerful dude right there.”
