Some pretty massive news broke tonight after UFC Vegas 12. Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya (20-0), will be moving up to light heavyweight to challenge Jan Blachowicz (27-8) for the light heavyweight title.
This news comes on the heels of the UFC’s light heavyweight champion calling for a fight with Adesanya this week. There’s been some teasing from the Adesanya camp about a potential move to the light heavyweight division. Now, that teasing has been confirmed.
Blachowicz called for the fight to take place in March. However, there are no details around when the UFC will actually book this fight. Perhaps those two could be the next coaches of the Ultimate Fighter after it was announced tonight.
This will be a massive fight that could propel Adesanya to be the biggest star in the sport. However, it will not be an easy fight at all for the UFC‘s middleweight champion. Blachowicz possesses more power in his strikes than anyone Adesanya has fought so far.
The UFC’s next double champ
Adesanya will be trying to do something that only Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and Amanda Nunes have done and that’s hold two UFC belts at the same time. I will say that the timing of the announcement from Adesanya is extremely interesting.
The UFC‘s middleweight champion had the opportunity to fight Jon Jones, however that fight never got made. Adesanya said he wanted to fight Jones at some point in the future, but he didn’t want to take the fight just yet.
After Jones vacated the light heavyweight title to move to heavyweight, Blachowicz won the UFC light heavyweight title. Now, Adesanya says he’s ready to move up and capture his second title. The fight is going to be massive for the UFC.
If Jones moves up and captures the heavyweight title, it could make the Adesanya fight even bigger. Imagine if Adesanya beats Blachowicz to become UFC light heavyweight champion and Jones becomes heavyweight champion. Never before would there have been a fight that involves champions of three combined weight classes.