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Israel Adesanya may not have gotten finished in his fight against Sean Strickland, but he was thoroughly beaten over five rounds to lose his middleweight title at UFC 293.

Despite Adesanya’s lackluster performance, UFC president Dana White wasted no time declaring that the former champ should receive an immediate rematch, especially after looking “flat and slow” in the fight. While UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier disagreed with White’s call, Matt Brown actually backs his boss — but Brown’s support has nothing to do with Adesanya’s frustrating performance.

“I think he needs some time off first,” Brown explained on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “He must have been one of the most active champions in UFC history. He’s been through the grinder, taking every [contender]. But the reason that I think he shouldn’t have to fight someone else isn’t because of his performance against Strickland, but because of all of his accolades leading up. All of his fights that he’s done leading up.

“He’s had an extremely busy schedule for a champion. He’s completely dominated almost everyone except for [Alex] Pereira and now Strickland. He’s had amazing fights. I think he’s earned the right to not have to work his way back to the title. I think he’s earned the right that he should be able to get a rematch basically any time he loses a title for the rest of his life.”

It’s hard to deny Adesanya’s credentials as a champion. He’s 8-3 in UFC title fights, with one of those losses coming at light heavyweight. The other loss prior to the Strickland fight came against Alex Pereira, which Adesanya avenged to reclaim his title back in April.

This time around, Adesanya didn’t get caught by a late comeback knockout similar to the Pereira fight. Instead, Strickland earned a fairly lopsided decision.

Still, Brown argues that Adesanya has earned more than enough goodwill to basically get whatever he demands next, but not before he takes a much-needed rest.

“I think he needs to take time off,” Brown said of Adesanya. “Whether Strickland takes someone in the meantime, assuming that Izzy takes my advice — and who am I to tell him — but assuming he does take time off and Strickland wants somebody in the meantime, I think that’s totally fair.

“But I think based off of Izzy’s record and what he’s done, the entirety of his career, he should be able to fight for the title any time he wants.”

Adesanya was one of the most active champions on the UFC roster, competing in four title bouts over the past 14 months.

That’s a difficult schedule for anybody, much less Adesanya running the gauntlet in the middleweight division, which included a knockout loss to Pereira and then delivering the same outcome to the Brazilian less than five months later.

Brown understands the difficulty that comes along with maintaining an incredibly busy schedule, but says it’s that much harder when doing it as a champion like Adesanya has done throughout his UFC career. That’s why Brown hopes Adesanya hits the pause button for now, but then he should be able to walk right back into a title fight upon his return.

“I hope that Izzy doesn’t need that right away,” Brown said. “The stress of being a champion is absolutely nothing we can even comprehend.

“I was never champion but I was a top contender, and the stress of just being right there doesn’t even compare to being a champion, but between the media responsibilities and the people around you, your schedule, you’re fighting the best guy in the world every single time and that’s enough right there in and of itself, not even minding the outside s*** you’ve got to deal with.”

Of course, Strickland deserves all the credit for his performance to beat Adesanya, which is why Brown urges the now former UFC champion to rest and reset before rushing back into a title rematch.

“I say Izzy take a break, rest up, get mentally healthy, get hungry again,” Brown said.

“Because yet again, I’m giving credit to Strickland because I think he took everything away from Izzy in that fight, but if it was simply Izzy not being himself, which is possible too, the first thing we’re going to look to is he’s had too much of a tough schedule. He was just burned out and was like, ‘I don’t really feel like fighting tonight.’ He looked like he was sparring in there.”

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