Feb 9, 2019; Melbourne, Australia; Israel Adesanya (red gloves) gestures to Anderson Silva (blue gloves) during UFC 234 at Rod Laver Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jasmin Frank-USA TODAY Sports
Israel Adesanya is the reigning king in the middleweight division of the UFC
Israel Adesanya eased past Marvin Vettori in the main event of UFC 263, to successfully defend his middleweight title for the third consecutive time.
‘The Last Stylebender’ won the fight via. unanimous decision scoring 50-45 on all three judges’ scorecard.
Following his victory he called out number one ranked middleweight contender, Robert Whittaker for a fight in his own backyard, Auckland. A rematch between the two is expected to go down soon.
More recently, Adesanya took to Twitter to share photos alongside his fellow African UFC champions – Francis Ngannou (heavyweight champ from Cameroon) and Kamaru Usman (middleweight champ from Nigeria).
Izzy explained how honoured he was to be a part of ‘this trio’:
“An era in the history of sports that will never be forgotten. I am honored to be part of this trio in mixed martial arts. There are 600+ active UFC fighters. Less than 30 of us are Africans. Yet 3 of us are Champions. More than AMAZING!! The new #blackmurderersrow“
Ngannou became the champion when he beat Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, earlier this year. Usman, on the other hand, has been the welterweight champion since 2019, when he beat Tyron Woodley at UFC 235.
Following his win over Vettori, Adesanya moved up a place in the pound-for-pound rankings. He displaced Alexander Volkanovski and moved to number 3. Only Kamaru Usman and his nemesis Jon Jones are currently ahead of him.
His opponent Vettori, slipped a place in the middleweight rankings, he dropped to number 4 and his number 3 spot was taken by Jared Cannonier.
As for Adesanya’s future opponent Whittaker, he moved up a place to number 11 in the rankings.
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