Could UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya pack on almost one hundred pounds and compete at heavyweight? His manager, Tim Simpson of Paradigm Sports, certainly seems to think so.
“He’s mentioned he wants to go back up to 205. Obviously, the last time he came up short. But I think he would be very comfortable in that division again if that’s what he wants to do. It’s really up to him and Eugene [Bareman, Adesanya’s head coach at City Kickboxing] on the athletic side. But I think he has business he wants to attend to at 185 first. He says he wants to fight everybody of his era in that weight class, which he almost has done.
Manager: Adesanya Ready to Move up to Heavyweight
He wants to go down as the greatest of all-time in that division, and there’s opportunity to stay there and keep fighting. But the door’s open to light heavyweight, even heavyweight. He’s had success at heavyweight in kickboxing, too.”
First, of course, Israel Adesanya has to get through Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Back when Adesanya was fighting for GLORY kickboxing, he lost to Pereira, twice. The second loss was a devastating knockout, and Adesanya’s last before he moved into MMA. With Pereira seemingly rushed to a middleweight title shot in order to capitalize on this rivalry, Tim Simpson believes that Adesanya is at peace with those losses.
“I believe him when he said he made peace with what happened.
It’s easy to be frustrated with the way the second one ended. When you watch the first fight, he won the first fight. It was a terrible decision. He won that fight the first time.
Then the second one, he won Round 1, a 10-8 in Round 2, he was winning Round 3 and got caught – fair play to Alex. I think in his heart, it’s not like, ‘That guy’s better than me.’ He did lose both fights, but I don’t feel there’s a chip on his shoulder about this guy.
He wants to settle it, certainly shut some mouths, but it’s not something that’s been eating at him for years, like, ‘I’ve got to get Pereira back.’ He was happy never fighting Pereira.”
Adesanya is confident in victory over Alex Pereira, and already has his sights set on his next opponent. He’ll stick around and clean out the middleweights before moving up to another division.
“Obviously, the Pereira fight is meaningful for the backstory they had in another sport, and there’s another few guys who have been real mainstays at middleweight that he wants on his resume, as well.
I know he wants to make that Strickland fight. I know he wants to fight Jack Hermansson, who has been a perennial top-five guy for the past five years. There’s other names at middleweight.”
Can “The Last Stylebender” really get through Alex Pereira and two more weight divisions? Let us know in the comments.
