The King is Dead. Long Live the King — UFC 287 Blog
Floyd Mayweather. Khabib Nurmagomedov. Two brilliant athletes and fantastic ambassadors of their respective sports. Both managed the impossible — finished their professional careers undefeated. 50–0 for Floyd, 29–0 for Khabib. A feat that is hard to describe, yet alone achieve.
But despite having immense respect for both these individuals as athletes, I’ve never truly felt an emotional connection to either. And it has nothing to do with the fact that we differ from each other in virtually everything — from gender to skin color or religious beliefs. The thing is, I will never understand what it’s like to go through life having never faced defeat in one of its aspects. Don’t get me wrong: both Khabib and Floyd have put inhuman efforts into achieving these outstanding career results, and by no means am I attempting to lessen them. However, I can only wonder what it’s like to be so special to come out on top of every challenge you ever face.
I’m not special. From relationships, to hobbies and career opportunities — I had to claw my way through hell for everything I ever achieved in life. I stumbled hundreds of times, my failure count is in the thousands, and I have let myself (or others) down on more occasions than I dare to admit. This isn’t a pity party, it’s just facts. Failure is neither good nor bad — it simply is. It’s a part of life.
Undefeated heroes like Floyd or Khabib can never be my role models or a source of daily inspiration simply because I can’t relate to them in any meaningful way. I feel a much closer connection to the likes of Michael Jordan, who failed to make his high school varsity basketball team, or missed the basket in 26 crucial moments when trusted to bring his team a game-winning shot. And it’s the same kind of a connection that I feel to Israel Adesanya.
7 years. 4 fights. 2 sports. 1 opponent. The opponent who has beat him three times, twice — by knockout. The opponent that ruined his championship aspirations or streaks in two different disciplines. An opponent who most people believed he wouldn’t be able to defeat. On April 9th 2023, Israel Adesanya knocked that same opponent out in a spectacular fashion, reclaimed his championship gold and, in my eyes, got much closer to achieving true greatness than he had ever been while staying undefeated.
I don’t actually know what a person feels when they enter the octagon, quite literally putting their life on the line… especially against an opponent that they had lost to previously. I can only speculate and imagine. But even if we put aside for a moment the possibility of receiving irreversible physical damage, the mental pressure alone must be absolutely suffocating.
I will go to my grave believing that a loss in combat sports is different from a loss in, say, football or tennis. Of course, no one likes loosing, but in soccer a lost game is just that — a game. Combat is personal: put into primitive terms, it’s the closest one can get to a battle simulation. Losing to someone in the ring or octagon basically means that were we to fight one-on-one they would have killed me. If we met on a battlefield a few centuries ago, they’d have slain me, burnt down my village, killed or imprisoned my family. Another thing is that in other sports rematches are a regular occurrence — teams play each other all the time, so one loss is just a number in the statistics column. In MMA rematches are rare and most athletes don’t get a chance to right the wrong.
Israel Adesanya was one of those lucky few who got this chance, and managed to come out victorious. But at what price? Of 9 minutes and 21 seconds of hell, where every moment is filled with uncertainty and lurking shadows of self-doubt. When every strike has a potential to be fate-altering. When prior to the battle itself, weeks and weeks are spent on killing your own ego — during sparring, conditioning sessions, or the grueling weight cut. When dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s in preparation still doesn’t guarantee you success. Because the fight game is just that heartless.
Yet, after all this, I still call him lucky. Why? Because the first words he said after winning were:
‘I hope every one of you behind the screens or around this arena can feel this level of happiness just one time in your life’.
I truly do believe that at that moment in time there was no human on earth happier than him. And may we all be so lucky.
On that night Israel Adesanya conquered his biggest weakness and strongest enemy. Of course, above all, he did it for his personal benefit: for his future, his legacy, his family and teammates. However this doesn’t lessen the significance of this achievement for people like me. For those who fall down, break their hearts and faces by repeatedly slamming them against obstacles — in relationships, at work or at school. For those, who will never be able to fully relate to undefeated heroes because they have nothing in common with them. For those, who on April 9th, 2023 were given the greatest gift of all — hope.
So I hope that all of us have enough strength to challenge the things that have defeated us in the past. And that we get to experience what Israel Adesnya has experienced inside the octagon that day… at least once.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
