Israel Adesanya won’t be gaining any weight for his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz.
Israel Adesanya won’t be adding any muscle mass or gaining weight ahead of his light heavyweight title bout and divisional debut against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, according to City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman.
Bareman revealed in a recent interview with 1 News that ‘The Last Stylebender’ will enter the bout at his ‘normal, walk-around weight’ as City Kickboxing believes it will give Adesanya a competitive advantage on fight night.
“We’re not putting on weight. The science of putting on weight and moving up in weight isn’t going to be a factor in this fight because we’ve decided to come in at our normal, walk-around weight,” Bareman said.
“We’re hoping it gives us the advantages we need to win the fight rather than stack on muscle. I don’t think, with any amount of time or any amount of weight that Israel could put on, I don’t think he’s ever going to be stronger than Jan so we’ve decided, ‘Let’s try not to get stronger than Jan, let’s use that time to better-suited endeavors.’”
Adesanya has moved up and down in weight throughout his kickboxing career and is even open to the idea of fighting Jon Jones at heavyweight if ‘Bones’ goes on to capture the heavyweight title in 2021.
“I’d say the first then the second. If I was waiting (to defend the light heavyweight title) I’ll just go back to 185 and f**k people up there and then if he (Jones) wins the heavyweight belt, I’ll just jump up and take that off him. It would be cool. It’s like, oh you took my old toy now I want it back, then comes back down and I’ll slap him across the face.”
Adesanya is the current, reigning middleweight champ and will look to add another title to his resume when he takes on Blachowicz at UFC 259. The highly anticipated pay-per-view is scheduled to take place on March 6 at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.