Isreal Adesanya partially blames an eye poke for his loss against Nassourdine Imavov, reports sherdog.com. Adesanya headlined UFC Saudi Arabia against Imavov in February 2025.

“The Last Stylebender” was going toe-to-toe against Imavov before abruptly getting finished early in the second round. Adesanya was poked in the eye moments before Imavov landed the finishing sequence. However, the former middleweight champion brushed it aside and immediately resumed the action.

Adesanya recently revealed that his focus was compromised after getting eye poked. The Nigerian-born Kiwi admits that he should have taken his allotted to compose himself before continuing.

“The last fight, I got eye poked,” Adesanya told ESPN. “I should have taken my time and reset properly. But I wanted to carry on the work I was doing and not let him get any time to rest. And focus, it just wavers. No matter what level you are, you can never master it. I should have just locked in right there, taken my time, re-centered, reset, and gone back to doing what I was doing. You live and you learn.”

The loss against Imavov was Adesanya’s third consecutive loss. Adesanya (24-5) is now scheduled to fight Joe Pyfer (15-3) at UFC Seattle on March 28 at the Climate Pledge Arena.

Meanwhile, Pyfer is 6-1 in the UFC and riding a three-fight winning streak going into the toughest test of his career to date.