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UFC 248, which is set to go down on March 7 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, currently features a women’s Strawweight title fight between division queen, Weili Zhang, defending her strap against former champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
But according to current Middleweight king, Israel Adesanya, he will be the one headlining the event by putting his title on the line against Yoel Romero. And while the promotion has yet to announce the matchup, “The Last Stylebender” says it’s a done deal.
“Yup, that’s the one, that’s me,” replied Israel when asked on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show if he would be fighting at UFC 248. That said, there appear to be some more details that need to be ironed out before the bout becomes official.
“There are other battles that happen behind the scenes, but the fight is done,” said Adesanya.
“I literally got out of the gym, putting work in. Make no mistake, I am still putting work in getting ready for my second title defense getting ready for a veteran in the game, veteran in wrestling, a tough motherfucker and the boogeyman of the division, the guy no one calls out except ‘Stylebender.’”
UFC president Dana White recently hinted at the possibility of making this fight, but didn’t give a time or a place. Adding this much-desired title fight to the UFC 248 slate would definitely boost its intrigue, especially when you have former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker facing Jared Cannonier in main card action.
While Israel had an impressive 2019 in MMA, winning three fight against Kelvin Gastelum, Anderson Silva and then dethroning Whittaker at UFC 243 from the top of the 185-pound mountain, he expects 2020 to be even more fruitful.
“I have my first guy on the chopping block, and that’s Yoel. So he’s the first one and I want to defend my belt three times this year. At least three times,” he concluded.
Those are some rather lofty goals, but Israel did always say that once he became champion he would be an active one and not just sit on his title.
As far as a potential move up to Light Heavyweight to challenge division champion Jon Jones, that won’t happen until 2021.