Israel Adesanya‘s first non-title bout in six years at UFC Saudi Arabia in February was going remarkably well. Coming off bad losses to Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland, the Kiwi-Niegerian was dominating the first round of his rebound clash against Nassourdine Imavov. Fans were sure that the old Adesanya was back, and all seemed right with the world once again. Alas, that didn’t last long! In the second round, Imavov shocked everybody by knocking out the former 2-time 185lbs kingpin with an overhand right, followed by an uppercut.

With that loss, ‘Izzy’ is 1-4 in his last five. And that has raised some serious questions about his future. Will he go on fighting and hope to make another title run? Or will he retire? “I don’t know, I have to chill, then think about things. I’ll relax first for a little bit, just to help the teammates who have fights coming up, and yeah, see what I want to do.” Adesanya said after the Imavov loss. But that was two months ago. The question is whether Adesanya has decided what he wants to do next. Well, ‘Izzy’s City kickboxing head coach, Eugene Bareman, shared his thoughts on the topic in a recent interview with ‘Submission Radio’.

“I think he’s [Adesanya is] going to fight, mate. I think he’s going to fight, I think he’s going to find it in his soul that he wants to fight. He’s a fighter, mate. Like, he’s going to find it in his soul that all this s–t like traveling around to America and podcasting and this and hanging out with this, he’s going to realize mate nothing fills his cup, nothing fills his soul like fighting. I think at heart he’s a fighter and he’ll find, you know, he’ll be like ‘No I’m going for it,'” Bareman said.

Although ‘Izzy’ has not made the announcement about his comeback public yet. However, the City Kickboxing head coach is sure the 35-year-old will be back. In fact, at another point in the interview, Bareman revealed that ‘Izzy’ spoke to him “in the changing room at Volk’s”, where “he said ‘look man, I think I’m going to fight again.'” This raises one very interesting question! Who will Adesanya fight when he comes back?

Israel Adesanya has a fair few options for his comeback fight

There are at least a few good fights for Israel Adesanya in the division at the moment. Perhaps the toughest matchup for ‘Izzy’ would be #6 ranked ‘Fighting Nerds’ team member, Caio Borralho, who has a remarkably well-rounded game. A win for the Brazilian would put him over, make him a veritable superstar, and put him much closer to a title shot.

Then there is the possibility that the Kiwi-Nigerian former champ fights fellow former champ Sean Strickland, who is coming off a loss to champion Dricus Du Plessis. A clash between the two biggest stars in the division would certainly go down well with fans and sell some PPVs.

Then there is another former champion, Robert Whittaker, who is also coming off a loss. Not to mention ‘The Reaper’ has fought and lost to ‘Izzy’ twice and has wanted to long avenge those losses. A dark horse may be the incredibly entertaining and acrobatic Michel Pereira. The latter, of course, is ranked #12 in the division at the moment, but the Brazilian striker would be an easier yet very intriguing matchup for the Kiwi-Nigerian. What do you think about Israel Adesanya’s coach’s thoughts about his UFC future?