Israel Adesanya is open to the idea of a move to the WWE.
Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya could be the latest fighter to make the transition to the world of professional wrestling, with ‘The Last Stylebender’ revealing that his childhood dream was always to become a ‘WWE superstar’.
Adesanya isn’t currently in talks with the WWE, but the 31-year-old does have some contacts from the Attitude Era and says a UFC-WWE-style crossover is ‘definitely a possibility’.
“I’ve never spoken to them about it directly but I speak to a few — well a couple of guys from the Attitude Era, my era,” Adesanya told BT Sport prior to his UFC 259 light heavyweight title fight against Blachowicz (h/t postwrestling.com). “Never spoken about it but yeah, growing up, that was before I even knew what the UFC was or that it existed. That was definitely a dream of mine or path to I guess being where I’m at right now in the public eye was being a WWE superstar so yeah, definitely is a possibility.”
Ronda Rousey is the most notable fighter to make the transition from MMA to the WWE, with the former UFC women’s bantamweight queen going on to capture the RAW women’s title at SummerSlam 2018 to become the first — and only — woman to win a title in both the UFC and WWE. There is also former UFC heavyweight Brock Lesnar, who started out in the WWE before making the transition to MMA to become a world champion in both organizations.
Adesanya is currently recovering from his loss to Blachowicz. He lost to the Pole via unanimous decision in a failed bid to capture the light heavyweight title and become the first simultaneous middleweight and light heavyweight champion in UFC history.