Israel Adesanya issues statement following TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia

Israel Adesanya has issued a statement after suffering his third consecutive loss at the hands of Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia.
Adesanya (24-5 MMA) was returning to action this afternoon for the first time since suffering a submission loss to Dricus Du Plessis (22-2 MMA) this past August at UFC 305. The former UFC middleweight champion was looking to avoid the first three-fight losing skid of his career, as he had dropped a decision to Sean Strickland prior to being tapped out by ‘DDP’.
Standing in the way of Izzy’s return to the win column was surging middleweight Nassourdine Imavov (16-4 MMA). ‘The Sniper’ had entered today’s headliner sporting a three-fight winning streak, his most recent being a unanimous decision victory over Brendan Allen.
Today’s UFC Saudi Arabia main event resulted in a third consecutive loss for Israel Adesanya. After a competitive opening round, Nassourdine Imavov was able to drop ‘The Last Stylebender’ with an uppercut early in the second round. ‘The Sniper’ immediately pounced on Izzy with some heavy ground and pound, which ultimately prompted the referee to step in and call a stop to the contest (see the finish here).
Official UFC Saudi Arabia Results: Nassourdine Imavov def. Israel Adesanya via TKO (punches) in Round 2
Shortly following the loss, Izzy spoke about his latest setback on the UFC post-fight show:
“Disappointed,” Adesanya said about his performance. “I hate disappointing my fans and my team. My team’s still proud of me for the work that I put into this. It’s just the thrill and agony.”
Israel Adesanya continued and expressed his disappointment with the result (h/t MMAFighting):
“I don’t think it’s for them to know. You have to really be in it to know. Only a privileged few will ever get to this point and understand. To be able to feel something so great but also able to feel something so deep and so [frustrating]. It’s a f*cking lovely game, but it’s a stupid game at the same time.”
Izzy concluded:
“He must be excited to beat a guy like me,” Adesanya said. “But again, I felt good. Round one, I was in control of everything. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken some time. I just didn’t want him to rest because I knew he was tired. I didn’t want him to rest. But again, [hindsight is] 20/20.”