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Anyone else on the whole “champion” thing?
Granted, it was pretty cool when Conor McGregor kept his word and won the lightweight title, not long after taking gold at 145 pounds. I didn’t really stand to applaud when the feat was reproduced by Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo; but hey, so much the better for them.
Sorry, but Amanda Nunes doesn’t count as there is no women’s featherweight division, so the promotion leaves this blank on the official leaderboards page. Can you name five 145 pound contenders who aren’t bloated bantamweight?
Three?
The “champ champ” phenomenon is back in the news because reigning middleweight defending champion Israel Adesanya will climb to 205 pounds to take on light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, this time. which marks the Polish puncher’s first title defense since Dominick Reyes flattened out last September.
But the only downside to having a champion holding titles simultaneously in two different weight classes is that one of them inevitably gets screwed. McGregor never came down to featherweight again, just as Cormier and Cejudo chose to stay at heavierweight. Not only does this remove the division, but it casts a shadow of doubt over the successor.
For example, Max Holloway never had to face McGregor on his way 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 sake of this preview we will treat it as inevitable, but in reality it hardly is. Just ask Reyes, or Luke Rockhold, or countless other people who have faced 27-8 Blachowicz.
“I’ll definitely go back down to 185,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. “I have something else in my head that might interest me afterwards. But my goal is to get back down to 185. I want to keep my division moving. “
If Adesanya does indeed return to middleweight, No.1-ranked light heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira pisses in the wind, so to speak, with Aleksandar Rakic - assuming “Rocket” is able to make a statement against it. Thiago Santos, a 205-pound showdown that also takes place at UFC 259.
“If Adesanya wins, what happens then?” Will Adesanya defend at 185 or 205? I don’t know, ”Teixeira told MMA Fighting. “If that means sitting down and waiting until June, August, I don’t know, maybe I would wait, I don’t mind.
I don’t know 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 them both. Darren Till has also entered the chat in recent weeks, but “The Gorilla” has lost three of its last four and is parked miles from a title shot.
We also need to factor Jon Jones into the equation. The promotion is set to send Adesanya into battle against ‘Bones’, depending on the performance of the former light heavyweight champion at heavyweight, where he is expected to draw Stipe Miocic winner against Francis Ngannou and create another traffic jam. divisional.
Unless…
“Blachowicz’s victory would be better for me,” Teixeira said. “And better for everyone.”
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