It appears that middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is on the path to potentially becoming a two division UFC champion, as the fighter says he’s facing light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.
Adesanya confirmed that the bout with Blachowicz is in the works, after UFC President Dana White spoiled those plans to the general public.
“It’s official. I guess Dana broke the news, so yeah, I’m going up to 205, and I’m gonna snatch that 205 strap. Respectfully,” Adesanya said to Submission Radio.
The bout, assuming it all comes together, would mark the UFC light heavyweight division debut for Adesanya.
One huge reason that Adesanya wants to become a double champion is to deliver a big “FU” to former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“It’s just a big fuck you to him, just to be like, I did something you couldn’t. I mean, he cleared the division of the light heavyweight twice over and then started fighting recycled middleweights. So, don’t come at me talking about ‘move up in weight and fight’ when you can’t even do the same thing after over 10 years in the company. So, I’m actually about to do it. It’s a good fight for me to do it with. With Jan, he’s a good fighter, he’s solid on the ground, he’s awkward on the feet, very dangerous, and he poses a lot of problems. And like, the Whittaker fight wouldn’t get me hard. This gets me hard. Like, this is like, alright, let’s go. He’s dangerous on the ground, he’s awkward on the feet, got that legendary Polish power. But yeah, everyone’s got power, right? I mean, it’s something I proved in my last fight. I told y’all. You have to delivery that power somehow, you have to get it to the target. I’m not the easiest target to hit,” says Adesanya.
There is an ulterior motive Adesanya has for winning the light heavyweight strap and that is that it will put the fighter on the path to winning three titles in the UFC.
"I realize I’m about to do something in literally in three years, what Jones hasn’t even done in over how long in the company? Over 10 years. I’m about to do it in three years and move up in weight. He’s doing it now after how long? And we’re still waiting to seeing if he’s actually gonna do it. And like, it’s crazy how everything’s just set up, man. [When] I take this belt from Jan, if for whatever reason Jones actually moves up and fights at heavyweight, like, imagine if he got the belt somehow, by some freak of nature, and I’m like, fuck you, I’m going to heavyweight then. Three belts at the same time. Like, Andrew [Shulz] planted that seed in my head, and was just like, yup, makes sense, makes sense,” Adesanya said.
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