Israel Adesanya references UFC legend who went out on his shield when picturing his retirement

Israel Adesanya speaks on having an ‘honorable’ retirement before walking away for good

Israel Adesanya is never going to be short on opponents wanting to fight him due to the name that he has built up in the UFC.

With 18 UFC bouts now under his belt, the former elite kickboxer has been able to accomplish incredible things since signing to the promotion in 2018.

‘The Last Stylebender’ recently sat down with filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou for an interview posted on the former champion’s YouTube channel.

Towards the end of the conversation, after Adesanya spoke about needing to focus on his career instead of exploring other opportunities for the time being, he spoke about his plans for retirement.

While he would ideally hang the gloves up after one last win, Adesanya did make reference to ‘The Korean Zombie’ and his retirement fight against Max Holloway in 2023 where he ended his career with a wild exchange that saw him get knocked out.

“It definitely would be a win. That’s what I pray for, that’s what I aim for,” Adesanya said. “It has to be a win. But again, there’s an honorable way, like ‘Korean Zombie’. His last fight was Max Holloway and he got badly knocked out.

“But again, he gave that moment where it was, ‘You and me, let’s go. Let’s f—— go,’ and they had that cool exchange and Max got the best of him. He could have got the best of Max, but Max got the best of him.

“Then he’s like, ‘That’s me, I’m done.’ You have to know when to hold them and when to fold them… When I walk away from this, I know for a fact I’ll be done. I’ll be okay with it.”

Israel Adesanya was originally set to star in the ‘Street Fighter’ remake

Earlier in the interview, the topic of Israel Adesanya exploring big opportunities outside of fighting was brought up in relation to a project that Danny and Michael Philippou were both linked to.

The Australian twins, who first started out as content creators on YouTube, were set to remake the 1994 movie adaptation of the popular video game series ‘Street Fighter’.

It was revealed in the interview that they were planning on casting Adesanya in the movie.

While the movie is set to release in 2026, the project moved forward without the Philippou brothers due to the schedules clashing with their 2025 release, ‘Bring Her Back’.

The movie may not have Adesanya in the cast, but it does have his fellow City Kickboxing fighter, Alexander Volkanovski.