Israel Adesanya is the current UFC Middleweight Champion
UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya seems to have it for fighters from other weight divisions.
Izzy has been hunting down Jon Jones, who is a Light Heavyweight, for a while. And the UFC Champion seems to also be on the radar of Tyron Woodley.
Woodley currently fights in the Welterweight division and is a former champion too. The problem for Adesanya right now is that both his targets are in different weight classes, and it would be crazy for him to either lose or gain weight and face them.
Chael Sonnen was speaking about this fight and suggested that Woodley would be a tough opponent for Adesanya:
“Tyron Woodley would be a very hard match for Adesanya. Tyron laid out his case, ‘look, Adesanya doesn’t like power’”.
However, Sonnen claimed he had never seen Adesanya back away from power hitters. He highlighted an old video of the UFC Middleweight Champion going off against Anthony Johnson in a sparring session.
Sonnen further suggested that Woodley being compact could be a problem for Adesanya, but the real problem is the weight class:
“The hardest guy to fight is always the guy one weight class below you. He’s just a little bit faster than what you are used to and he can go just a little bit longer cos he’s carrying around a little less weight.”
However, Sonnen reminded people that Woodley isn’t thinking of moving away from the Welterweight division for now.
Adesanya, for his part, recently fought against Yoel Romero and kept his title. The champion has called out Jones in the past and it will be interesting to see if this clash does go ahead.
According to Sonnen’s theory, Adesanya would be at an advantage since he was the lighter fighter compared to Jones, should the fight take place.
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