LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya will be significantly lighter than Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, although not as much as he indicated earlier this week.
Adesanya weighed 90 pounds on Friday morning at the official weigh-in for UFC 259 at UFC Apex. He didn’t take off his clothes, as athletes usually do. He just wore sweatpants and asked a cornerman to bring him a pizza box later.
No one ever weighed as light as Adesanya on Friday and won the UFC light heavyweight title, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Fighters who weigh less than 202 pounds are 0-2.
This Saturday, the UFC middleweight champion is getting ready to fight for the light heavyweight title against champion Blachowicz. Earlier in the week, Adesanya told Ariel Helwani of ESPN that he could weigh up to 193 pounds at weigh-in. That was not the case. But Blachowicz weighed well at the 93 kg light heavyweight limit for a title fight and told ESPN he would weigh around 100 kg on Saturday. Adesanya is unlikely to weigh much more on Saturday than now.
Adesanya tries to become just the fifth fighter in UFC history to have two titles in two different divisions simultaneously. The others were Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes, who still holds a pair. Nunes defends the UFC women’s featherweight title against Megan Anderson in the main co-fight this Saturday.
Nunes was the first on the scales on Friday morning and weighed 145 pounds. Anderson was 144.5. Nunes is the UFC featherweight and female bantamweight champion. She is considered the greatest female MMA fighter of all time.
ESPN ranked Adesanya in 4th place in the world ranking weight by weight. At middleweight, Adesanya is in first place, while Blachowicz is in second place at light heavyweight, behind the great Jon Jones, who is in the process of switching to heavyweight.
Adesanya (20-0) has been the UFC middleweight champion since October 2019. He has two title defenses, including a dominant second round TKO over Paulo Costa at UFC 253 last September. Adesanya, 31, has won nine consecutive UFC victories since his debut in February 2018.
Blachowicz (27-8) won the vacant light heavyweight title with a technical knockout in the second round over Dominick Reyes at UFC 253, the same card that Adesanya starred against Costa. The Pole has won four consecutive games, three of them by KO / TKO. Blachowicz, 38, has won eight of his last nine fights overall.
Petr Yan will also try to defend his UFC cock title for the first time on this card. Yan weighed 135 pounds and challenger Aljamain Sterling weighed 134.5 pounds.