“I think I’m a nightmare matchup for him if you look on paper, just based on the paper with my wrestling and my jiu-jitsu.”
Everyone wants a piece of newly-crowned UFC interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
The latest fighter to call out ‘The Last Stylebender’ is former UFC 185-pound kingpin Chris Weidman, who thinks he would be a ‘nightmare’ matchup for the New Zealander.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview Weidman, who used to think Adesanya was overrated prior to the Kelvin Gastelum fight, thinks he has the grappling pedigree to cause all sorts of problems for the former kickboxing world champion.
“Look, people were going nuts on Israel. He’s a very talented guy, he’s got great standup and now I know that he is super tough after that last fight,” Weidman said (transcript via MMA News). “Before he fought Anderson Silva, he fought Derek Brunson, he fought Silva who is 44 and is known as a standup guy, which is a perfect matchup for him.
“It was a very close fight. At that point people were talking about him like he’s the next best thing, and at that point I just thought he was overrated and he hadn’t been able to prove himself yet. He hasn’t gone against a top wrestler, hadn’t fought guys in the top five.
“I just felt people were getting ahead of themselves. But that was it. I’m a fan of the guy, I like watching him fight and I would love to fight him. I think I’m a nightmare matchup for him if you look on paper, just based on the paper with my wrestling and my jiu-jitsu. With my size, I think I will be a real problem for him.”
Weidman, 34, last fought at UFC 230, where he was knocked out in the third round after a back-and-forth epic with MMA veteran Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.
As for Adesanya, the Nigerian-born talent will go on to face official middleweight champ Robert Whittaker in a title unification bout later this year. Expect an official announcement from the UFC in the coming weeks.