Adesanya’s Social Media Post Raises Concerns Before UFC
Israel Adesanya’s “Am I gonna miss weight…” post drew speculation the day before his Riyadh main event with Nassourdine Imavov. The official scale settled the immediate question: Adesanya weighed 185 pounds, one pound below the 186-pound non-title middleweight limit, as did Imavov. The fight went ahead as scheduled on February 1, 2025.
The weigh-in answered the question
The post circulated while fans were following the final hours before the official weigh-in. Its wording invited guesses about whether Adesanya was joking, discussing his cut, or simply playing with the audience. The post by itself did not establish a missed weight or a medical issue, and it was not evidence that the bout was in danger.
The official weigh-in report listed both headliners at 185 pounds. Non-title middleweight bouts allow up to 186 pounds; the 185-pound mark is the championship limit. Both men were therefore under the applicable cap. That matters because the speculation was specifically about the scale, not a reported withdrawal. Adesanya made weight and Imavov did too, so there was no miss between them to alter the main event.
A high-stakes return to non-title action
At the time, Adesanya was a former two-time middleweight champion coming off back-to-back defeats: a decision loss to Sean Strickland in September 2023 and a submission loss to Dricus du Plessis in August 2024. The matchup with Imavov was his first non-title bout since 2019, according to Reuters’ fight report. That made the contest a meaningful test, but the social post alone could not tell fans how prepared either fighter was.
Imavov was a younger contender who had built momentum with wins over Roman Dolidze, Jared Cannonier, and Brendan Allen in 2024. For Adesanya, the Riyadh appearance offered a chance to regain ground in a division he had once led. For Imavov, a win over a former champion could move him into the title conversation. The stakes were sporting and competitive; they did not require treating a cryptic post as a crisis.
Imavov changed the story in round two
Imavov stopped Adesanya by knockout 30 seconds into the second round, landing a right hand and follow-up punches. The official event recap records the finish. The result gave Imavov his fourth consecutive win and marked Adesanya’s third straight defeat. The decisive moment was the exchange in the cage, not the previous day’s unanswered question online.
That recap describes the opening round as measured and relatively even. Early in the second, Imavov used a jab to draw Adesanya’s attention, then landed the right hand that dropped him. Adesanya tried to recover, but Imavov followed him down with punches until the referee stopped the fight. The sequence turned a competitive main event into a sudden finish and gave context to the official 0:30 time.
Adesanya later returned to headline a March 28, 2026 event in Seattle against Joe Pyfer. Pyfer won by second-round TKO at 4:18, according to the official results. That later loss is the clearest subsequent marker in Adesanya’s run since Riyadh. It also gives the original social-media item its proper scale: an intriguing pre-fight post, followed by an on-time weigh-in and a bout whose outcome was decided by the fighters’ performance.
