Latest news with #LastStylebender
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yoel Romero offers Israel Adesanya advice amid career struggles: 'His ego is blinding his intelligence'
Yoel Romero is living proof that no one is ever too old to do anything. Just weeks out from his 48th birthday, Cuba's "Soldier of God" has continued to defy the odds and pick up combat sports victories well beyond most athletes' expiration dates. Meanwhile, Romero's past — and much younger — rivals like former two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya are tumbling through the roughest patches of their careers. Advertisement After Adesanya suffered his third consecutive loss this past February, Romero offered words of encouragement to "The Last Stylebender" on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I don't think his career is over," Romero said. "I have a lot of respect for Israel. He's a fantastic fighter, he's very smart, but he's possibly fighting his hardest fight right now. It's with his ego. His ego is blinding his intelligence, and that's why it's his toughest fight. What I would tell him right now, I hope he can see this, is — and I'm giving him this advice as if I'm giving it to myself — taking the second commandment of Yeshua, love others like you love yourself. "Try to not get hurt sparring, try to not take any big hits. You need time to recover your body. His body is, like, wasted a little bit. He needs to just recover his body, get it back. He's had some strong hits, and that has diminished his neurons. When that happens, they start to lose their strength, and the body weakens. That brings a lot of insecurity in yourself. That's his biggest fight right now. Advertisement "Take a break, take a vacation. You have to oxygenate your body," he added. "Don't think that you have to fight, fight, come back, come back. You need to just take a minute. Talk to [UFC CEO] Dana [White], ask for a little bit of time so that you can get the real Israel back. He's still in there. Live a healthy lifestyle." Romero's UFC middleweight title bout against Adesanya at UFC 248 in March 2020 was coincidentally Romero's final fight in the promotion. The multiple-time title challenger lost a lackluster but competitive split decision against Adesanya and then parted ways for Bellator the following year. Heading into that 2020 fight, Romero was somewhat of a controversial choice as Adesanya's challenger. Romero lost two straight bouts prior — a split decision title rematch with Robert Whittaker and a unanimous decision opposite Paulo Costa. Yet on the road to UFC 248, Romero was arguably as intense as he's ever been, delivering one of the most memorable pre-fight interviews in recent MMA history. Speaking to ESPN, Romero maintained an unbreakable, stone-faced gaze as he answered questions, creating an infamously viral moment when he leaned forward, removed his sunglasses and exclaimed that "everything is possible in your life when you believe," before repeating, "Go. Go. Go." Advertisement Five years later, Cuba's Romero remembers speaking directly from the soul. "In this moment, my soul talked because I thought about everything I do in my life for this moment. Everything I take in my life," he recalled. "Many people know my history. My real history. A 12-year journey. I made a decision. I wanted to make something different in my life. I want to do my dream. I want to believe in what I'm feeling, thinking in my soul. Now that's what you want, you believe that you can, and now go. You need to go for this dream. You need to fight. You are going and fighting for your dream. This moment, I remember everything that I need to do in my life. "You have to fight for your dreams. You have to get out of your comfort zone to get ready to fight. In that moment where I was speaking, it was my soul speaking. The best things to come out of an interview is not what you have written down on a script. It's what comes out of your soul. What you've had to fight for. That's what I transmitted to the world. No matter your situation, if you believe and you know what you're willing to do, go and do it. You're already a winner. Already a winner." Romero most recently picked up his second straight win in Mike Perry's new Dirty Boxing Championship promotion in late March. An Olympic silver medalist in wrestling, Romero stopped Ras Hylton with strikes in the third round.
The Independent
30-01-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Israel Adesanya may never fight for a UFC title again if he can't pass Nassourdine Imavov test
Israel Adesanya 's glittering MMA career has entered 'do or die' territory. On Saturday, Riyadh will play host to Adesanya's first non-title fight in almost six years. How it fares could very well determine whether the 'Last Stylebender' will ever compete for UFC gold again. After an era of comfortable domination at middleweight, Adesanya goes into his five-round headliner against Nassourdine Imavov off the back of two very different losses. The first, 17 months ago, stunned the fighting world into gaping-mouthed silence. Putting on a performance that paled in comparison to what we had come to expect from Adesanya, he was roundly beaten up by heavy underdog Sean Strickland over 25 minutes, losing his belt in emphatic fashion. That night, UFC president Dana White lost a champion he had come to rely on for mainstream attention, instead forced to wrap the strap around the waste of Strickland, an ever-outspoken sponsor's nightmare. But you only needed to look at the scorecards to see just how deserving of a title win it was – and with that, a new dawn had been ushered in at 185lb. The defeat sent Adesanya on an extended period of self-reflection, away from the Octagon. He told New Zealand radio show The Rock: 'I'm going to take time to look after myself, and I'm not going to fight for a long time.' Having previously averaged two or three fights a year, Adesanya stuck to his word and would not be seen in the cage until 11 months later, when a unique rival came calling. By this point, the middleweight champion was Dricus Du Plessis, who had previously engaged in a dispute with Adesanya over the uncomfortable topic of who was Africa's true fighting representative. That set up an obvious grudge match between Nigerian-born Adesanya and the South African. After such an off-the-pace display against Strickland, it was quickly apparent that Adesanya had come on leaps and bounds in his time off. He looked to be executing his gameplan with aplomb against Du Plessis, working the body brilliantly and pushing the new champion to his limits as the pair fought into the championship rounds. However, those late rounds can be the most defining in the cage, and as Du Plessis appeared to be tiring, he hurt Adesanya with a crucial right hand. From there, he pounced on the former champ's back before locking in a face crank, forcing the tap and retaining his title. Even with a much-improved performance, Adesanya was once again defeated. More crucially, his fighting future was left resting on a knife edge, where it remains in the present day. Now fighting for contendership instead of gold, a win in Saudi Arabia is a must if Adesanya intends to become the UFC 's first three-time middleweight champion. Anything else will cast him further away from the title picture and could even spell retirement. His route back to the throne is anything but easy, and his test against Imavov could prove telling. On a three-fight tear, Imavov is getting a taste for the main event now; Saturday's is his fourth in the UFC, with two of his previous three going down as wins. Last time out, in September, the Frenchman soaked up home adulation as he ground out a decision win over Brendan Allen in Paris, shooting him to fifth in the middleweight rankings. Far more in-form than Adesanya, Imavov is vying for title contention for the first time, and the 28-year-old will be desperate to add a divisional great to his resume. In fact, Adesanya may already be the greatest to ever fight at 185lb – a debate that puts him up against Hall of Famer Anderson Silva. And with Adesanya's successes far outnumbering his failures, he is minded to focus on the rewards of a win over Imavov, not the prospect of a third straight loss – or never regaining the title. 'I'm not thinking like that,' Adesanya told MMA Fighting via 'I'm just going in there ready to dominate. I'm not thinking, 'I don't want another loss.' That's a weird way to frame it, because [I'd just be] thinking of what I don't want. [If] you're tapping into that, 'Oh, I can't lose, I can't lose,' your brain just recognizes 'lose, lose, lose'. It remains to be seen which Adesanya will appear on Saturday. We could witness a further rejuvenated Izzy, who has built on his encouraging performance versus Du Plessis. Or perhaps he will regress to the tired, uninspired Adesanya who lost the belt – potentially proving the Du Plessis display as a final, failing burst towards his old throne, leaving him with gatekeeping or money fights before retirement. Either way, Adesanya is not contemplating defeat. His mind, as it should, is only telling him to 'win'.
