Adesanya vows to demolish Pereira, halt losing streak

If former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is feeling any pressure ahead of his UFC Saudi Arabia main event fight opposite Nassourdine Imavov, the ex-champ is not showing it.

Adesanya, who opened his MMA career on a 20-0 run, is riding the first losing skid of his career heading into the UFC Saudi Arabia card, which takes place on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The 35-year-old Adesanya, reflecting on his losses to Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis in 2023 and 2024, recently said those setbacks were freeing in a way.

“I’ll give you a little secret,” Adesanya told Sky Sport.

“There’s a certain mentality when you’re undefeated, you’re (expletive) killing everyone. When you’ve had one loss, and another loss in two different styles, and you’re like, ‘Okay, at least the worst part’s over in my head.’ Now, I can just like, who cares? I don’t care. Just enjoy this fight.

“The fun part of this fight, because I don’t think Imavov is going to say anything, he seems pretty respectful, pretty cool, the fun parts going to be in the cage,” added Adesanya. “I think it’s going to be a fun fight, just box it up.”

The next time Adesanya steps into the UFC Octagon, it will be the first time the former two-time UFC middleweight champion has competed on a non-pay-per-view card since he faced Brad Tavares in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 27 Finale fight card. How long ago was that you ask? So long ago that the event was on FOX Sports 1. The fight, which Adesanya won via unanimous decision, took place on July 6, 2018.

Since his win over Tavares, Adesanya has fought on 14 consecutive UFC PPV cards, putting together a record of 10-4. Of those bouts, 12 were for UFC gold. During that run, Adesanya had two runs as the UFC