Anyone else about this whole “champion” thing?
I must admit it was pretty cool when Conor McGregor kept his word and won the lightweight title, not long after winning 145 pound gold. I was not exactly stopped and cheering when the feat was reproduced by Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo; but hey, good for them.
Sorry, but Amanda Nunes doesn’t count because there is no women’s featherweight, so the promotion leaves it blank on the official ranking page. Can you name five 145-pound candidates who are not inflated bantam weights?
Three?
The “champion” phenomenon is back in the news because the current welterweight champion Israel Adesanya will rise to 93 kilos to face light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, which marks the puncher’s first title defense. Pole since the defeat of Dominick Reyes last September.
But the only downside to having a champion holding simultaneous titles in two different weight classes is that one of them inevitably got screwed. McGregor never returned to featherweight, just as Cormier and Cejudo chose to remain at the heaviest weight. Not only does this bog down the division, it casts a shadow of doubt on the successor.
For example, Max Holloway never had to rematch McGregor en route to the title.
Adesanya (20-0) wants to break that mold by returning to middleweight after winning the 205-pound title on Saturday. night (March 6) in Las Vegas and for the purposes of this preview, we will treat it as a foregone conclusion, but in reality, this is hardly the case. Just ask Reyes, or Luke Rockhold, or countless others who faced Blachowicz 27-8.
“I’m definitely going back to 185,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. “I have something else in my head that may interest you (me later). But definitely going back to 185 is my goal. I want to keep my division moving. ”
If Adesanya does return to middleweight, that will leave the No. 1 light heavyweight contender, Glover Teixeira, pissing in the wind, so to speak, along with Aleksandar Rakic - assuming “Rocket” is capable of making a statement against Thiago Santos, a 93kg showdown that also takes place at UFC 259.
“If Adesanya wins, what happens then? Will Adesanya defend in 185 or 205? I don’t know, ”Teixeira told MMA Fighting. “If it means sitting and waiting until June, August, I don’t know, maybe I would wait, I don’t care.”
I’m not sure what loot awaits Adesanya at 185 pounds. Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and “The Last Stylebender” has already stopped both. Darren Till has also been chatting in recent weeks, but “The Gorilla” has lost three of his last four and is parked miles away from a title fight.
We also have to factor Jon Jones into the equation. The promotion is set to send Adesanya into the battle against “Bones”, depending on how well the former light heavyweight champion does at heavyweight, where he hopes to take the winner of Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou and create more a divisional stalemate.
Unless…
“Blachowicz’s victory would be better for me,” said Teixeira. “And better for everyone else.”