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Robert Whittaker established himself in the #1 contender spot at Middleweight after an impressive win against Jared Cannonier at UFC 254. However, Israel Adesanya, who won the Middleweight Gold beating the Australian, isn't interested in a re-match with Whittaker, and might go up to face Light Heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz instead.
Israel Adesanya's head-coach Eugene Bareman said:
"Israel has no interest in fighting Robert again. Honestly for us, it feels like that Robert fight just happened yesterday. Israel is disinterested in that fight and it's going to be hard for me and my coaching team, and himself, to pick him up for that fight."
"When you look at the landscape at middleweight, there's nothing. We need the next challenge and, for us, that's moving up to 205 and fighting Blachowicz. That's the next biggest challenge in front of us and that's the one we want. We have put the feelers out and we're going to action negotiations this week."
Daniel Cormier expects Jon Jones to return to Light Heavyweight to fight Israel Adesanya
Eugene Bareman didn't mention Jon Jones, despite Israel Adesanya's public feud with the former Light Heavyweight champion. Daniel Cormier, responding to Bareman's comments feels that the Kiwi might be ducking the fight with Jones.
Speaking on the DC and Helwani podcast, he said:
"If he goes up and fights Blachowicz, if he somehow refused to fight Jones, at that point because he said he wanted to take time to get into the weight class, get rid of his split, not a good look. That tells me you don’t want to fight the guy."
"If he [Adesanya] rises to 205 and gets this belt in hand. There’s no getting around him to fight Jon Jones. It’s going to happen because the moment Jones says I want to go to 205, the UFC should almost feel obligated to give him a title shot even though I don’t like the guy."
"If he [Jones] says I’m back at 205, immediately all competitors, every number one fights, everyone walks out the window and he steps right into the title shot. If Israel Adesanya takes hold of this belt, trust me Jones will be back to fight him"
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