Written by Soren Lindseth
Israel Adesanya made a splash in the UFC with his quick rise to becoming middleweight champion. Many believed it was inevitable that he would become a two-weight champion in the near future, but following his loss to the current reigning light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, many wonder: Where where Adesanya will go from here?
Israel Adesanya’s meteoric rise in the UFC was punctuated when he won the UFC middleweight title against Robert Whittaker by knockout in the second round. This came after Adesanya had claimed the interim title in his previous fight, a five-round instant classic with Kelvin Gastelum.
Adesanya already had a superb career in combat sports. Starting out in kickboxing in 2010, Adesanya compiled a professional record of 75-5. Of his five losses, only came due to knockout, in large contrast to his 29 wins came by way of knockout. The lone kickboxing finish is to this day the only time Adesanya has been finished across all combat sports.
He would claim the Glory Kickboxing middleweight title in 2016. Simultaneous to his kickboxing career, he would start competing in professional mixed martial arts outside the UFC in 2012, along with five professional boxing matches from 2014 to 2015, going 4-1.
As mentioned, Adesanya would venture into MMA in 2012. He would break onto the scene amassing an 11-0 record before the UFC came calling, all by knockout before the third round. In his UFC debut against Rob Wilkinson, Adesanya continued to shine with a second-round TKO en route to his first UFC Performance of the Night bonus.
After a split decision victory against now 27-year-old rising star and 6th ranked contender Marvin Vettori, Adesanya defeated Brad Tavares by unanimous decision in the TUF 28 finale.
Adesanya would continue to have his level of competition rise, and after a seemingly easy first-round knockout of middleweight’s so-called “gatekeeper” Derek Brunson, who now finds himself on a four-fight win streak and ranked 4th in the division, Adesanya earned himself a fight against MMA legend Anderson Silva. The two would put on a technical striking masterclass, with Adesanya earning a unanimous decision over his inspiration and hero.
Defeating a former champion and someone widely regarded as the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time for a duration of time, Adesanya earned a chance to claim a piece of UFC gold. With Robert Whittaker sidelined, Kelvin Gastelum stepped up to the plate with an interim belt up for grabs.
The fight was very close up until the fifth round, which saw Adesanya drop Gastelum multiple times, nearly finishing his opponent. Gastelum scored a takedown of Adesanya earlier in the third, also adding 92 total strikes for good measure to Adesanya’s 119 total strikes. All three judges had identical 48-46 scorecards in favor of Adesanya, with all judges seeing the fifth and final round a 10-8.
This set the stage for a title unification bout between Adesanya, the Nigerian-born, New Zealand-raised interim champ, and Whittaker, the New Zealand-born, Australia-raised undisputed champ. With that, an epic Kiwi showdown was set, with the fight taking place in Melbourne, Australia in front of a whopping 57,000 spectators.
Adesanya showed up in peak form, knocking out Whitaker early in the second round to earn the undisputed belt. Prior to the finish, Aedanya had earned a huge knockdown of Whittaker in the first round, which would have ended Whittaker’s night had the bell not rung signifying the end of the round.
Israel Adesanya had achieved his dream in a very short time. He had his first fight in the UFC in February 2018 and won the belt in October 2019. People believed that Adesanya was something special and that he had the potential to become one of the greatest fighters of all-time.
After a lackluster title defense against perennial contender Yoel Romero and an easy dismantling of then-undefeated Paulo Costa, Adesanya made the decision to go up to light heavyweight to attempt to become the eighth person to hold two belts in UFC history and just the fifth to do so simultaneously.
The UFC signed off on this for a couple of reasons, the first being that Adesanya had become a massive star with his rapid ascension as well as his quick wit and smooth trash talking. The second reason could be seen in the state of the middleweight division, as it has become a mess. All the would-be contenders had been losing to each other, leaving no obvious number one contender.
Adesanya had made light work of the former champ Whittaker, as well as the clear-cut number one contender at the time in Paulo Costa. With all this in mind, a match between Jan Blachowicz and Israel Adesanya made all the sense in the world.
The fight ender up being very close, with Adesanya doing pretty well early on in the fight. He was keeping the bigger Blachowicz on the outside and hitting him with some clean shots. However, Blachowicz scored a few takedowns and was able to get a significant amount of control time, which led to him winning the unanimous decision.
Being Adesanya’s first setback in his stellar MMA career, critics can be quick to judge the still-reigning middleweight champ, although they should hold their judgment. Blachowicz weighed at least twenty pounds heavier than the middleweight champ on fight night, who weighed in around 200 pounds, five pounds shy of the light heavyweight limit. A weight differential can factor in tremendously when it comes to grappling, so Blachowicz employing a grapple-heavy strategy played out in his favor.
With all that being said, where does Adesanya go from here? Before speculating too much, let us look no further than the comments of the man himself. After his first career loss, Adesanya stated that he would be staying at middleweight for the foreseeable future and focus on defending his title.
It seems that for the time being, Adesanya may have to be patient and let the division sort itself out. Robert Whittaker is the current number one contender, but he was easily defeated by Adesanya. Since then, he has looked very impressive with decisions over Daren Till and Jarred Cannonier and has made himself a decent case for a rematch.
However, he is currently booked to fight Kelvin Gastelum on April 17th. Gastelum gave Izzy one of his toughest fights to date, so if he could beat Whittaker he would have a decent case for a title shot, but it would shake up the landscape of the division immensely as he only recently broke a three-fight losing streak.
Paulo Costa sits in the number two spot but has not fought since being finished by Adesanya in September of last year. Jared Cannonier is the third-ranked middleweight but has yet to earn a victory since being decisively beaten by Whittaker.
Derek Brunson is the next in the rankings, but as previously mentioned, he was finished in the first round when he fought Adesanya. His trajectory is looking favorable in comparison to Costa and Cannonier though, as Brunson currently rides a four-fight win streak.
Many fans and pundits had deemed Marvin Vettori vs. Darren Till, which was set for April 10th, to be the number one contender fight after Costa was removed from the Whittaker bout, but that too was just recently called off due to Till breaking his collar bone. Both fighters are dynamic strikers, which would make for an intriguing matchup against Adesanya someday. It looks as if tenth-ranked Kevin Holland will be stepping in on two weeks’ notice to fight Vettori, but Holland was just dominated from bell to bell by Brunson not even two weeks ago.
If the fight would not have been called off and Vettori would have won, it would have been very likely that Vettori would have got the next title shot, especially considering how close his fight with Adesanya was in April 2018, in which one judge even thought Vettori won.
Kevin Holland, who had a spectacular year in 2020 going 5-0, is expected to step in for Till and fight Vettori as mentioned prior. It would still make sense for Vettori to fight Adesanya if he wins in spectacular fashion, but Holland took a major step back in his chances of getting a title shot soon with his loss to Brunson.
With the Till vs. Vettori fight falling through, the winner of Whittaker vs Gastelum seems to be positioned as the most likely candidate for Adesanya’s next fight. Whittaker has kept busy since his loss to Izzy and has looked very impressive while doing so. Gastelum fought a close fight with Adesanya up until the final round and could be a viable matchup for the champion if Gastelum comes prepared.
Adesanya will take some time off, considering his first career loss came just a few weeks ago. When the dust settles in the middleweight division, he will return and face either Vettori, Gastelum, or Whittaker.
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