Israel Adesanya’s reaction time has diminished, says former UFC champion

A former UFC champion believes that Israel Adesanya isn’t as sharp as he once was.

Adesanya went from having one of the most memorable knockouts wins of all time against Alex Pereira to suffering four losses in a row. It has been a rapid decline for “The Last Stylebender,” who was recently stopped by Joe Pyfer in the UFC Seattle main event.

Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling uploaded a new video on his YouTube channel sharing his opinion that Adesanya has lost a step in terms of reflexes and reaction time (via MMAJunkie).

“Izzy, he’s just always winning these fights and then somehow, he just ends up not,” Sterling said. “He can still compete. There’s definitely a couple of things about Izzy that I think has changed. One of those, I think, is the main thing that sticks out to me is the reflexes. I just don’t think his reaction time is quite the same as it used to be – as sharp. I don’t want to take anything away from Joe Pyfer. I thought he fought well. He had a rough start, was able to draw Izzy into fighting his style of fight, and once he did that, he was able to get his hands on him to take him down and put on the finishing touches to get him out of there.”

Sterling noted that he felt Adesanya looked good in the opening frame, but things unraveled in the second round. “Funk Master” was also puzzled that Adesanya went from using his range to standing stationary and trading with Pyfer. Sterling feels Adesanya could’ve kept his distance for all five rounds if he had the cardio.

What do you make of Israel Adesanya’s downfall? Is it a matter of aging or have fighters simply caught up to the former middleweight king? Let us know in the comments below.