UFC President Dana White says Israel Adesanya has a lot of work to do, including at UFC 263 vs. Marvin Vettori, before considering another leap to light heavyweight.
UFC President Dana White believes there is a lot of substance left for Israel Adesanya at middleweight.
Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman believes the UFC middleweight champion’s days at 185 are number as he continues to clean out the division. Even if Adesanya beats Marvin Vettori at UFC 263, however, White says that Adesanya doesn’t need to look at a return to light heavyweight.
“It’s not true though. I mean, that’s what people were saying about Anderson Silva for years. ‘Oh god, what’s next? Who’s next?’ There’s always somebody next,” White told Submission Radio. “Believe me, there’s gonna be somebody that’s gonna have an amazing performance here in the next several months that people will be going, ‘Oh god, we gotta see them and Israel now’. To completely clean out a division, he’s still got some time.”
White is not prepared, however, to completely close the door on a rematch between Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz.
“I don’t know, that’s up to him. Obviously, come back to middleweight, knock out a few more wins, show your dominance here again at middleweight, and then yeah, maybe he does move back up. Or, he rides out the rest of his career and tries to become the greatest middleweight of all time.
“Let’s see what happens with Jared Cannonier,” he continued. “Believe me, there’s still a lot of great fights for him [Adesanya].”
UFC 263’s PPV card is headlined by a rematch pitting UFC Middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, opposite Marvin Vettori. Also on the card is a UFC men’s Flyweight title rematch between champion Deiveson Figueiredo and challenger Brandon Moreno.