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UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has revealed how many times he plans to fight in 2021.
Israel Adesanya initially suggested that he’d like to fight about five times this year. However, Adesanya later asserted that since he’s the champion now, fighting around three to four times this year would be a more realistic target.
The Last Stylebender is all set to move up to the light heavyweight division and fight its current champion Jan Blachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 259.
On an edition of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, Israel Adesanya spoke to ESPN MMA’s Ariel Helwani on a myriad of topics. Adesanya notably shed light upon how many times he’d like to fight this year, stating:
“I want to fight a lot this year. Last year was a bit slow because of the ‘Rona (Coronavirus), but this year I wanna do what I did in 2018. When I just did like five fights in, I think 366 days, in a calendar year.
“Maybe not five, because I’m the champion now, it’d be hard to do so – But three to four; three to four because of the whole climate of COVID as well. But we can make it happen. I wanna be active again. I wanna be active like I was when I first got in the company (UFC) in my first year.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
The former kickboxer-turned-MMA stalwart made his UFC debut with an impressive second-round TKO win over Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221 on February 11th, 2018.
Israel Adesanya then picked up three more wins, over Marvin Vettori, Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson respectively.
Israel Adesanya’s fifth UFC fight was a unanimous decision win over combat sports legend Anderson Silva at UFC 234 on February 10th, 2019.
Adesanya harked back to the time period from February 2018 to February 2019 – his maiden year in the UFC – and pointed out that he’d like to compete as frequently as he did back then.
Israel Adesanya aims to continue his winning ways in the UFC in 2021
Israel Adesanya holds an undefeated professional MMA record of 20 wins and no defeats. Presently, Adesanya is regarded by many as one of the biggest stars in all of combat sports.
Needless to say, Israel Adesanya has consistently asserted that he aims to continue his winning ways in 2021. And in order to do so, he’d first have to get past feared KO artist and reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 on March 6th, 2021.
