Israel Adesanya is gearing up for his UFC 293 fight against Sean Strickland. Adesanya’s original opponent was expected to be Dricus Du Plessis but the South African was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Izzy then pushed for the Strickland fight, probably considering the verbal feud they had during the Jared Cannonier fight and the impressive streak ‘Tarzan’ managed to put together.
Adesanya acknowledges potential danger in Strickland clash
In an interview with Combat TV, Adesanya stressed the danger of facing a fighter who has nothing to lose. Izzy is wary of Strickland’s pressure-striking style. Even though ‘The Last Stylebender’ is the technically superior striker, he is also wary of the American fighter’s mindset. The Adesanya vs. Strickland clash is expected to be a striker’s delight pitting Adesanya’s counter-striking approach in contrast to Strickland’s pressure-oriented approach.
Adesanya avenged the TKO loss at UFC 281 to Alex Pereira at his most recent Octagon outing at UFC 287. Prior to the defeat, he was undefeated at middleweight with his only professional loss coming at Light heavyweight at UFC 259 in an unsuccessful attempt at being a double champion.
Izzy’s resume is loaded with victories over Robert Whitaker(x2), Marvin Vettori(x2), Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Jared Cannonier, Paulo Costa, Alex Pereira, and Yoel Romero to name a few.
Strickland on the other hand is on a two-fight win streak after losing consecutive fights to Jared Cannonier and Alex Pereira. In his most recent outing, Sean headlined the UFC Fight Night card at UFC Apex on July 1 against unranked Abus Magomedov. the Californian has notable victories over Jack Hermansson and Uriah Hall in the division.
When did Israel Adesanya win the Middleweight belt?
Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum fought for the interim middleweight title at UFC 236. The fight went all 5 rounds and right before the start of the fifth round, Adesanya’s monologue, “You can’t beat me, I’m prepared to die” has since become iconic. Izzy severely hurt Gastelum and went on to win a shot at the actual champion.
The Nigerian unified the middleweight titles against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243. The last stylebender fighter thoroughly outclassed Robert Whitaker to win the fight by TKO in round two. After the victory, Adesanya’s speech, “I was in the nosebleeds, now I made his nose bleed” was another iconic moment for the current champion.
The middleweight division was once ruled by the great Anderson Silva. Silva set many unprecedented records in the division and the UFC in general. However, now it looks like Izzy may be on his way to at least break some of ‘Spider’s records.
After Silva lost the belt to Chris Weidman, the belt went through Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping, Georges St. Pierre, and Robert Whitaker before reaching Adesanya. With old threats mostly retiring, the champion has new threats in the division with the likes of Khamzat Chimaev, Bo Nickal, and Dricus Du Plessis.
Who do you think is the best middleweight champ in history? Comment below!
