Jack Hermansson likes his chances against the current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 185-pound middleweight champion.
The Uddevalla, Sweden native is known for his strong grappling game. Among those in his weight class, he believes there is none better, which is exactly why he’ll be the one to dethrone the near-unbeatable titleholder, Israel Adesanya.
“Definitely, I see myself, without a doubt the best grappler in this division and that is why I’m also the biggest threat to Adesanya. I’m the person that is going to dethrone him,” Hermansson told BJPenn.com.
New Zealand’s Adesanya is flawless at 185-pounds boasting a 21-0 record. The legendary striking sensation’s lone career defeat in MMA came in his attempt at capturing light heavyweight gold against Jan Blachowicz in March 2021. Adesanya fell short via a unanimous decision that saw Blachowicz get the better of the striker with his wrestling as the fight progressed.
If Hermansson was to get Adesanya to the ground in a hypothetical matchup, he sees it being a wrap from there.
“That would be big,” Hermansson said. “I really don’t think people will see it coming, for now, maybe some people know how good I am and what I can do. With a guy like Adesanya, I probably just need one takedown and it will be really hard for him to survive. Even if I end up on the bottom, I’m always dangerous, it doesn’t matter who you are, if you are on the ground with me you are in big trouble.”
Hermansson has proven to be a very capable and dangerous submission threat throughout his UFC run thus far. However, he has to first worry about Sean Strickland tomorrow night before landing a potential shot at the champion. The two will go at it in the UFC Vegas 47 main event.
For Adesanya, he too has to defend his belt successfully when rematching Robert Whittaker next Saturday night in Houston, Texas at UFC 271.