Israel Adesanya isn’t content simply being undefeated at middleweight. He wants to defeat all challengers once again, just to let them know who’s boss.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, he addressed the issue that he’ll need to defeat contenders he’s already dispatched in order to defend his title.
Adesanya: “over-lapping everyone” exciting, still open to 205lb
“The idea of lapping the division is what excites me. I want to do that. It’s not really about Whittaker. It’s about just over-lapping everyone. That excites me. And also he’s been on a run, he’s beating some tough guys. So to do it again like I did Vettori, just to leave no doubt and just plant a flag in their head and let them know I own that.
That’s mine.” Adesanya continued, discussing his long break from fighting, which shows no signs of abating considering Australia and New Zealand’s strict COVID-19 regulations.
“I’m kind of glad I have this time off, because I really get to learn a lot more new skills, new skills that I can use when I come back.
Because when you’re in fight camp, you’re trying to just get in fighting shape. So now I really get to just up-skill the martial arts.
I feel like I just want to apply pressure, put it that way. I want to apply pressure right now, so to do that, you have to really get this kind of work done outside of camp.
Not just float around the gym. Just clocking in, clocking in, really getting those XP points, and that’s what I’m doing. So I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying this. They say ‘time off,’ but it’s not really time off because I’m working every day.”
It’s clear that Israel Adesanya is not mistaking time out of the Octagon for time away from fighting. And just because his sole career loss to date came at light heavyweight, when Adesanya took on Jan Blachowicz, does not mean he’s going to shy away from scaling the weight divisions once more.
“The story’s not over yet. There’s ways that this can happen, so stay tuned. I’m not a quitter. Like I said, you’ve got to know when to hold them. To know, OK, you’re going to fight another day.
I went up to 205, tried my best hand at it, it didn’t work out. So I’m definitely going to fight for that belt again, and depending on who’s holding that belt [it could against Jon Jones], because if you go up to heavyweight, f*ck that up, and then go back down to 205. So, yeah, there’s many ways the story can be written, like one of them Goosebumps [choose your own adventure] books.”
Do you want to see Adesanya move up to light heavyweight again once he’s “lapped” the competition at middleweight? Let us know in the comments.
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