Israel Adesanya teases potential return at UFC 300: “The gods must be crazy”

Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is teasing a return at UFC 300.

Adesanya is coming off a decision loss to Sean Strickland in September to lose his middleweight title and after the fight, he said he would be taking some much-needed time off. ‘The Last Stylebender’ originally joked he would be off until 2027, but clarified he’s focusing on quality fights and not quantity in the back-end of his career.

“That’s why I’m taking this time off. People were talking like I’m retiring or taking five years off. I’m like, ‘chill, don’t worry.’ My time off is different to most people’s time off. People take two years off. I’m not doing that,” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Like I said, four fights in 14 months. I know I’m on the back end of my career. I know when I’m done with this, I’m going to miss it. So I was trying to do as much as I can. Then I realized it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. I’m still going to enjoy this. When I fight, I know I’ll fight (this year). I don’t know when I’m going to fight, but when I fight, it’s going to be quality. It’s not going to be quantity.”

Now, after not much word on when Israel Adesanya may return, he took to his Instagram story to tease a potential return at UFC 300.

Esto subió Israel Adesanya 😱 #UFC300 pic.twitter.com/VL5pU6jJoc

— Gaston “Tonga” Reyno (@gastonreyno) February 1, 2024

“The gods must be crazy,” Adesanya wrote on his Instagram story with the movie 300 poster.

If Israel Adesanya does fight at UFC 300, it does seem likely that would be against Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title. But, given the South African just fought in January, edging out a split decision win over Sean Strickland, whether or not he would be able to turn around that quickly is uncertain.

The other potential option could be Adesanya moving up to light heavyweight to fight Alex Pereira in what would serve as their trilogy in MMA. But, with Dana White saying he will announce the main event this week, it’s likely we will know soon if Adesanya will be on the UFC 300 card.

Currently, UFC 300 is as follows:

• Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway
• Zhang Weili vs. Xiaonan Yan
• Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic
• Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
• Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling
• Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Cody Garbrandt
• Cody Brundage vs. Bo Nickal
• Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller
• Holly Holm vs. Kayla Harrison
• Sodiq Yusuff vs. Diego Lopes
• Jessica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez