Israel Adesanya will be staying with the UFC for the foreseeable future.
It was well known that Adesanya could fight out his UFC contract this year, but on Wednesday, it was revealed the middleweight champion has re-signed with the promotion. His management company, Paradigm, announced via a press release the middleweight champ has signed a new multi-fight deal with the promotion that will make him “one of the top paid athletes in the history of mixed martial arts.”
This is no doubt good news for everyone involved as since joining the UFC, Adesanya has become a fan-favorite and a massive star. With him re-signing, he will have at least several more fights inside the Octagon.
Israel Adesanya is set to defend his middleweight title in the main event of UFC 271 against Robert Whittaker. It’s a highly anticipated fight, but for the champ, he said it will be an easy bag as he expects to dominate Whittaker again.
“My prediction is that I am going to f*ck Whittaker up, again,” Adesanya said to the Stake. “He can’t stand with me, so I know he will be forced to grapple. Last time he said ‘Kevin Gastelum has given the blueprint on how to beat Adesanya’ and now he’s saying ‘Jan has given the blueprint’… he needs to write his own blueprint. If he wants to copy someone else’s work, then by all means try, because it went so well last time for him when we fought… There has been no cutting corners this time. It’s made me even more motivated to do it again and do it more decisively if that’s even possible. That is my motivation for this fight, to get up and beat him again in an even more devastating fashion.”
Adesanya is coming off a decision win over Marvin Vettori at UFC 263 in June. The victory got him back into the win column after suffering a decision loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 for the light heavyweight strap.
What do you make of Israel Adesanya re-signing with the UFC?