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By Peter Akinbo
Former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, has taken to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to share pictures from his training camp with fans anxiously anticipating his octagon return, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Adesanya established himself as one of the biggest names in mixed martial arts history during his previous reign at the top of the middleweight division. After taking the longest sabbatical of his combat sports career, ‘The Last Stylebender’ could be getting closer to making his return to competition.
There are rumours that the two-time middleweight champion is in talks to challenge Dricus du Plessis for the title at UFC 305 on August 18.
The former UFC middleweight champion took to X on Tuesday and shared pictures of himself sparring, which he captioned “Just hang up, I’m dialed in.”
Fans soon rushed to the comments section to share their reactions.
One of them, Omobola Oduntan, wrote, “Patiently waiting for the return of the Champ.”
Another fan, @Perplexidy, hinted that the UFC needs Adesanya’s energy back.
“We miss the active middleweight champion, get back brother, the sport needs you back.”
Mixed martial arts fan page, MMA Casuals, wrote, “Excited to have you back champ!”
A Nigerian fan, Henry Cloudy, echoed similar sentiments stating, “Baba we need you back in the Game.”
Crypto Coach with the username, @WisdomMatic added, “Return of the goat!”
Nate Lee simply wrote, “He’s backkkk.”
In his last octagon outing at UFC 293 last September, Adesanya squared off against Sean Strickland in a middleweight title fight. Strickland had only been granted the opportunity because top contender du Plessis was unavailable, and on paper, Adesanya appeared to be a terrible matchup for him.
But astonishingly, Strickland perfectly executed his game plan. He applied more pressure to Adesanya than any opponent had likely ever done before, knocking him down and throwing well-timed shots throughout the contest.
The fight lasted five rounds, with Strickland getting his hand raised via unanimous decision to become the new UFC middleweight champion. He has since lost the belt to du Plessis.