Coming off his domination at UFC 253, you would think Israel Adesanya (20-0) would want to just relax and soak in the victory. However, the middleweight champion already has his eyes set on the next challenge, and he doesn’t want to wait.
The UFC’s middleweight king is ready to fight. He doesn’t want to wait and his team is already talking to the UFC about his next potential fight. Adesanya went into detail on the talks with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani yesterday.
At first, Helwani suggested March or April for Adesanya’s next fight which was met with raised eyebrows from the UFC champ. Adesanya responded saying, “I’m fresh. I want to fight fast. I want to fight this year. We talked about it and I want to fight again this year. I ain’t f–ckin’ around Ariel.”
Next UFC opponent for Adesanya
The next logical step for Adesanya would be defending his UFC title against the winner of Jared Cannonier – Robert Whittaker. Those two fight at UFC 254 and the winner of that fight will be looked at as the clear number one contender in the middleweight division.
Adesanya said that he wanted to fight Cannonier after his victory at UFC 253. Of course, Cannonier has a tough test in front of him in the former UFC middleweight champion, Whittaker. Adesanya knocked Whittaker out in the second round when they fought to capture the title.
If Whittaker were to beat Cannonier, I wonder if Adesanya would want to do the rematch. His first victory over Whittaker at UFC 243 was very dominant. He might not be as interested in a rematch considering the way the first fight went.
Of course, there’s always the potential for the Jon Jones fight. However, I don’t see that fight materializing before the end of the year. In my opinion, the potential Jones – Adesanya fight would probably take place sometime in the middle of 2021.
There are a number of exciting options for the UFC‘s middleweight champion. He could also pull an Anderson Silva and move up to light heavyweight just to try it out. Either way, the last stylebender is planning on another fight in 2020.