Din Thomas isn’t surprised to see Israel Adesanya on a losing skid at this stage of his career.
The former fighter-turned-analyst recently weighed in on Adesanya’s latest defeat, when he was knocked out by Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night Saudi Arabia. The loss marked Adesanya’s third consecutive setback and has fueled widespread speculation about his future in the sport.
Thomas pointed out that many UFC legends have experienced similar declines toward the end of their careers, and “The Last Stylebender” is no exception.
“Well, that’s just the thing. You know when you make it to the top, and he (Adesanya) is done right? In my opinion at the top-top,” Thomas said during MMA Today on Sirius XM. “But it happens to everybody. No one escapes that except for Jon Jones. It’s a handful, and they’re all on Mount Rushmore. Even Anderson Silva fell off. It happens to everybody. This might be a bad message to send to fighters, but if you make it to the top, it comes crashing down hard. Harder than if you don’t make it to the top, and you kind of teeter around the UFC for a while.
“When you make it to the top top, your losses are always magnified,” Thomas added. “Everybody’s watching them and it looks like a hard fall. It happened to Chuck Liddell, it happened to B.J. Penn, it happened to all the greats, and that’s just what’s happening to Izzy right now.”
