Israel Adesanya reveals his biggest regret from his fight against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259
Israel Adesanya lost his shot at the light-heavyweight title in the main event at UFC 259, as he got outclassed by Jan Blachowicz.
That meant 'The Last Stylebender' was unsuccessful in his bid to become a rare two-division UFC champion.
In a recent in interview with ESPN, Israel Adesanya talked about his regrets in his fight against Jan Blachowicz.
The UFC middleweight champion said that he would have fared better had he cashed in on a few specific opportunities instead of choosing to be cautious. Speaking about his two moments of regret late in the fight, Israel Adesanya told Ariel Helwani:
My biggest regret from the fight… There were two instances that I felt I should have capitalised on, and I didn’t because of…I couldn’t capitalise on them because I felt like he would have the jump on me. That’s all I am gonna be able to say about it. So I didn’t capitalise on it, but on hindsight, I should have just shot them anyway, or I should have just acted anyway because he was tired as well. Yeah, I let myself down on those two instances. But yeah, I think that will be my biggest regret of the fight, just not pulling the trigger in those two key moments in the fourth and the fifth round. I just didn’t pull the trigger, yeah," lamented Israel Adesanya.
What surprised Israel Adesanya at UFC 259?
Israel Adesanya entered the Octagon as a sizeable favourite against Jan Blachowicz in the matchup of champions.
While Israel Adesanya certainly didn't underestimate Jan Blachowicz in any way, there were certainly a couple of factors that caught 'Izzy' off-guard. In this regard, while complementing Blachowicz's defence, Israel Adesanya told Ariel Helwani:
His patience. His patience surprised me, I’ll give you that. Credit to him, his patience, he took his time. He didn’t do what I expected him to do from his previous fights. Cause they are smart; they would have definitely known…like, ‘You can’t rush this guy. He’ll snipe you. You can’t just rush this guy who will snipe you.’ So he took his time and blitzed in very few moments, not as much as I thought he would. And his defence, his defence was really good as well."