In a fight were “someone’s ‘O’ had to go”, Israel Adesanya without a doubt proved his mettle in his middleweight title defense with a second-round TKO win over Paulo Costa in the main event of UFC 253 on Saturday night.
The Last Stylebender already had an impressive UFC resume coming into the fight, but this win might be his best yet. His matchup with Costa is just the second time in the history of promotion that two undefeated male fighters have fought for a championship, according to Brett Okamoto of ESPN.
Adesanya has quickly stamped his authority in a loaded middleweight division. His list of triumphs includes Anderson Silva (albeit an older version of The Spider), Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero.
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There are some highly ranked contenders out there, but only one has the champion’s eye right now.
“There’s one more I’m really interested in and that’s Jared Cannonier,” Adesanya said, per Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com.
Cannonier has already racked up three straight wins by TKO and has a bout slated for October against former champion Whittaker in October.
Adesanya will be watching that matchup closely, but at this point, it’s hard to find someone in the division he won’t be favored against.
For a fighter like Adesanya, his quality and profile, always puts him in the light of a superfight. Jon Jones recently relinquished his light heavyweight title, but UFC President Dana White has still thrown out the possibility of a fight with Bones.
“If you’re Jon Jones right now, you probably sit back and watch what happens this weekend, see who wins, how they win, and maybe make them defend the title and then you come back and try to regain it,” White told TMZ Sports. “… Or you move up to heavyweight. Or if Adesanya wins this weekend, you fight Adesanya, I don’t know. Jon Jones is in a really good position right now.”
With both fighters coming in with unbeaten records and both presumably squarely in their primes, this is the kind of matchup fight fans dream of. If Adesanya stays put in the middleweight division, it’s hard to imagine this will be the first matchup between these two strikers.
Regardless, Adesanya has struck first and remains the world’s best middleweight at a perfect 20-0.
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