The confirmation came almost in passing. “We just signed the contract yesterday,” he said. “Finally, both of them. You know, you’ve got the disclosed purse and the other one.” He did not name an opponent or a date, but he left little doubt about the setting. “All I’m going to say is there’s going to be blood in the sand,” he said. “It’s easy to talk because I’ve lost my last four, but it’s all good. There will be blood in the sand, and it’s not going to be me.” His next fight is widely reported to be a UFC Fight Night headliner against Shara Magomedov in Riyadh in early December, though the UFC has yet to confirm the bout, and reports differ on the exact date.
The candour matters because of how far the former champion has fallen. Adesanya, 37, has not won since knocking out Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in April 2023 to reclaim the middleweight title. Since then he has lost four straight for the first time in his career: a decision to Sean Strickland, now the champion, followed by stoppage losses to Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov and, most recently, Joe Pyfer at UFC Seattle in March. After that last defeat, he acknowledged how hard it had been on the people around him to see him fall. He is now 24-6 overall and 13-6 in the UFC, and the comeback follows a self-imposed break of around seven months.
The biggest change is around him rather than in him. In July, Adesanya left City Kickboxing, the Auckland gym where he trained from 2009 and where he was built from kickboxer into a two-time UFC champion alongside coach Eugene Bareman. If the Riyadh fight goes ahead, it will be the first UFC fight of his career without that team in his corner, and he has not publicly detailed who will lead his new camp.
What he did describe is a shift in mindset, from someone going through the motions to someone who wants to compete again. Whether that translates into results is the only question that matters now. Adesanya is expected to headline a UFC event for the 14th consecutive time, a measure of how much drawing power he retains even after four losses. The fight itself will show whether a new team and a renewed appetite can restore the timing and composure that once made him the best middleweight in the world.
