UFC fans got some exciting news this evening. Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that the promotion has finalized a light heavyweight title fight between champion, Jan Blachowicz (27-8) and middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya (20-0).
The fight will headline UFC 259 that will take place on March 6th. For Israel Adesanya, he will try to become just the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold two world titles at the same time. He would join Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, and Amanda Nunes.
Stylebender is coming off of arguably his best performance of his career at UFC 253. That night, Adesanya was taking on Paulo Costa (13-1) who was expected to be his toughest challenger. However, he was completely outclassed by Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya went on to stop Costa in the second round of their title fight to retain his middleweight championship. Immediately after the fight was over, there were questions about what would be next for the UFC middleweight champion.
UFC Champion vs Champion
In the co-main event at UFC 253, a new light heavyweight champion was crowned. After a decade that just saw either Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier rule the division, there was going to be a new king.
Jones vacated the light heavyweight championship with the desire to chase the heavyweight crown. With Jones moving up, Jan Blachowicz took on Dominick Reyes (12-2) for the vacant title.
Reyes had just lost to Jones in a fight that many believed he won. Some were even calling him the uncrowned UFC champion. However, at UFC 253, the uncrowned champion ran into some serious Polish Power.
Blachowicz completely ran through Reyes on his way to securing a second round finish. Poland’s Blachowicz has completely turned his career around and now he’s on top of the light heavyweight mountain.
However, he’s going to have his hands full in his first fight. With Khabib Nurmagomedov seemingly retired, you could make the argument that Adesanya is the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC.
If he’s able to move up and capture a second world title, it would be hard to argue. Adesanya’s move up to light heavyweight also shows his seriousness in his desire to fight Jon Jones. That could be a fight the UFC aims to make in 2021 if Adesanya is able to beat Blachowicz.