Israel Adesanya says he will fight for the UFC light-heavyweight title again before his career is over.
‘Stylebender’ stepped up to 205lbs in March to take on Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. He competed well before ultimately falling to a close but clear loss over five rounds.
The 32-year-old has since stepped back down to 185lbs to defend his middleweight title against Marvin Vettori. After a hostile build-up, Adesanya dominated ‘The Italian Dream’ through five rounds of fighting.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Adesanya talked about his middleweight future.
“The idea of lapping the division is what excites me,” Adesanya said. “I want to do that. It’s not really about Whittaker. It’s about just over-lapping everyone. That excites me. And also he’s been on a run, he’s beating some tough guys — so to do it again like I did Vettori, just to leave no doubt and just plant a flag in their head and let them know, ‘I own that. That’s mine.’”
The New Zealander insisted he hasn’t given up on his dream of becoming the UFC light-heavyweight champion.
“The story’s not over yet. There’s ways that this can happen, so stay tuned,” Adesanya said. “I’m not a quitter. Like I said, you’ve got to know when to hold them. To know, OK, you’re going to fight another day. I went up to 205, tried my best hand at it, it didn’t work out. So I’m definitely going to fight for that belt again — and depending on who’s holding that belt [it could against Jon Jones], because if you go up to heavyweight, f*ck that up, and then go back down to 205. So, yeah, there’s many ways the story can be written, like one of them Goosebumps (choose your own adventure) books.”
Adesanya says he doesn’t dwell on his failed 205lb title bid and remains confident he will get his shot at redemption at some point.
“It’s done. In the past,” Adesanya said. “Why would I hold onto that? I learned something off the mats, so I still pick the lessons, but I don’t hold onto the fact, like, ‘Oh man, I lost.’ Nah, you just went up there, tried to achieve a side mission. I didn’t quite get all the XP points but you got a lot from this, but now I’m back on the main mission, which is defending my crown at 185. And then another time down the road, you open another side mission. So like I said, the game’s not over, the story’s not finished yet.”
Do you think Israel Adesanya will ever be the UFC light-heavyweight champion?