Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion Israel Adesanya made headlines with his sensational second-round knockout over 185-pound bruiser Paulo Costa at UFC 253, then kept himself in the headlines with a saggy right pectoral on his otherwise skinny 6’4” frame.
Even bitter rival Jon Jones took notice.
“I didn’t want to speak about it until I knew what it was,” Adesanya told ESPN. “It’s been on me for like the last eight weeks and it was growing and I was like, ‘this is quite sore.’ Even my girl told me to go to the doctor but I was like ‘I have to get this fight over with first.’ I don’t know what it is. I just got a blood test done and two MRI scans for my pituitary gland. So we’ll get the tests back and see what it is.”
Fan theories range from gynecomastia to breast cancer.
Adesanya is just 31 years old but has already racked up over 100 fights between mixed martial arts (MMA) and kickboxing. “The Last Stylebender” is expected to make his Octagon return in first quarter 2021 against Jared Cannonier, assuming “The Killa Gorilla” can blast his way past ex-champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 254.