Israel Adesanya’s right. He wouldn’t have as much to gain as Kamaru Usman if the welterweight champion would move up to challenge the middleweight titleholder.
“I have nothing to gain,” Adesanya told TSN earlier in the week. “It’s the guy coming up from a lower weight class that looks to challenge himself that’s almost the protagonist of the story. That gets to rise to the occasion and that’s cool, but Kamaru’s not interested.
“It’s bigger than money,” he added. “It’s just about legacy.”
Adesanya will look to further the latter in the headliner of UFC 271 on Saturday night when he’ll defend the middleweight crown in a rematch against Robert Whittaker. The last time they clashed, Adesanya produced a second-round knockout and asserted the fight mantra that there's levels to mixed martial arts.
If the results this time around are as convincing in Adesanya’s favor, perhaps its time for “The Last Stylebender” to look elsewhere to add to that “legacy” he was talking about earlier in the week.
Regardless of what transpires Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Adesanya is a certified mixed martial arts living legend and one of the biggest superstars in the sport. He has run through the middleweight likes of Marvin Vettori (twice), Derek Brunson, Whittaker, Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa with a mix of surgical precision and blunt force and has made it look relatively easy in the process.
Another victory over Whittaker, and Adesanya can welcome a challenge from a tried and true Jared Cannonier, grant a rematch to an improved Brunson or take on a surging Sean Strickland.
Or … he can opt to handle some unfinished business.
Adesanya’s only blemish in the UFC came back in March 2021, when he fell by unanimous decision to Jan Blachowicz. The bout had Adesanya going for double champ status as he dared to be great at light heavyweight before coming up short.
Perhaps it’s time to try his hands and feet at light heavyweight again.
Adesanya signed a multi-fight extension with the UFC earlier in the week, leading him to believe that he’s the second-highest paid active fighter.
If Adesanya wants to deliver as big of a boom in the Octagon, clinching double champ status would certainly constitute a GOAT status, taking his already impressive resume and elevating it to that of an MMA God. Only Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Henry Cejudo have accomplished the feat. Adesanya has what it takes to join that elite company and possibly outdo them, altogether.
The current landscape at light heavyweight touts veteran Glover Teixeira as champion, Blachowicz as the No. 1 contender with Jiri Prochazka and Aleksandar Rakic behind.
Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman recently told Ariel Helwani that his charge is aiming for five or six title defenses in a single year. The fact that he’s getting started in early February would lead many to believe that he could possibly make good on that targeted goal.
While cleaning the division out further would certainly help bolster Adesanya’s profile that much more as the undeniable middleweight king, would it outdo a possible double champion run?
It’s for Adesanya to decide.