Israel Adesanya has been handed a medical suspension for six months.
The Nigerian-born New Zealander suffered the first defeat of his professional career on Saturday night to Jan Blachowicz in Las Vegas.
As a result of the injuries Adesanya sustained against Blachowicz, it may take as long as September before he is cleared to fight again.
The 31-year-old will also undergo X-rays on his left foot and ankle to determine the level of damage sustained before knowing when he will return.
Meanwhile, Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman, has refused to make any excuses for the 31-year-old after his bid to become a two-weight champion was brought to an abrupt end at UFC 259 by Blachowicz.
Bareman says Adesanya is “humble” about the defeat and insists the changes in preparation due to travel and COVID-19 safety protocol were not to blame for his loss. Speaking about Adesanya’s defeat, Bareman told Submission Radio, “No excuses. I think the training camp went well, and the lead-up to the fight week was brilliant.
“There are no excuses here. This is the thing, man, when you lose, it doesn’t happen in this sport nowadays, but sometimes you just lose and you just have to take it. “And we are as a team internalising it, and we’re being humble about it and taking it like a loss, like you should do.
“It doesn’t happen enough in this sport. People kind of refuse to accept a loss, but we’re accepting it we’re looking to take what we can out of it.”
He also believes the defeat could be beneficial for Adesanya as it has not only taught him a lot, but heightened his “to get back in and fix some of the small details.”
“We’ve learned a lot, to be honest,” Bareman said of the Adesanya vs Blachowicz fight. “There’s not too much that I want to talk about, what we’ve learned, I always want to keep whatever edge that we have over everybody else, I don’t want to talk about too much what we’ve learned.”
PUNCH.
