Aljamain Sterling: Israel Adesanya isn’t as quick as he used to be

Aljamain Sterling believes Israel Adesanya has shown a decline in his defensive instincts.

Adesanya (24-6 MMA, 13-6 UFC) was stopped by Joe Pyfer in the second round of the main event at UFC Fight Night 271 last Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

Adesanya won the opening round on all three judges’ scorecards before getting drawn into a more aggressive striking exchange, which eventually led to him being taken down and finished with ground strikes.

“Izzy is always in control of these fights, but somehow they end up slipping away from him,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “He can still compete, but there are a few things about him that seem different now. The biggest one to me is his reflexes. His reaction time just doesn’t look as sharp as it used to.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Joe Pyfer because I thought he fought very well. He had a difficult first round, but he managed to pull Izzy into the kind of fight he wanted. Once he did that, he was able to close the distance, get him down, and finish the fight.

“Pyfer was the bigger and stronger fighter. Izzy defended well early on, and I thought if he had stayed at range like he did in the first round, he could have controlled the fight for all five rounds if his cardio held up. But for some reason, he chose to stay in the pocket and trade with him. The fight went from being at long range to very close distance, which is exactly where Pyfer wanted him. Izzy avoided some big shots, and I thought he looked very good in the first round, but everything changed in the second.”

Adesanya has now lost four consecutive fights, with three of those defeats coming by stoppage. Before that stretch, the only fighter to stop him was Alex Pereira at UFC 281.