Israel Adesanya returns to the UFC Octagon at UFC 305 on the 17th of August to take on Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight title. 'The Last Stylebender' is coming into this fight off the back of the longest layoff of his professional combat sports career, spanning over both MMA and kickboxing, but he has insisted that he needed the break, and he is coming back a different beast.
Adesanya is already in contention to be considered the greatest middleweight the UFC has ever seen, and with a few more years seemingly left in his career, a win over Du Plessis to become a three-time UFC middleweight champion could see him overtake Anderson Silva as the GOAT of the middleweight division.
Anderson Silva
Despite Anderson Silva being nowhere near his prime when this fight happened, for Israel Adesanya to get the current middleweight GOAT's name on his resume is an incredible achievement. Adesanya got booked to take on 'The Spider' in just his fourth UFC bout, which is not a thing that many UFC fighters over the years can lay claim to, fighting such a legend of the sport so early into their UFC career. In this fight, Adesanya also managed to headline his first UFC pay-per-view event, albeit in unfortunate circumstances due to the original main event, which was scheduled to be a middleweight title fight between Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum, getting cancelled.
Despite being the main event of a pay-per-view card, Adesanya vs Silva was only scheduled for three, five-minute rounds, as opposed to the traditional five, five-minute rounds for all main events and title fights. The fact that the fight was only scheduled for three rounds seemed to benefit both men as they competed in a high-paced kickboxing fight for 15 minutes straight.
Kelvin Gastelum
Out of all the names which you are going to see appear on this list, Kelvin Gastelum's probably holds the smallest star power, but is arguably one of the most impressive victories of Adesanya's career.
At UFC 236, Adesanya and Gastelum competed for the interim UFC middleweight title and produced one of the greatest fights in UFC middleweight history and arguably the best fight of 2019. The then two middleweight contenders showed their desire to compete for undisputed gold, and they brutalised each other for five consecutive rounds in what turned out to be a non-stop action back and forth war.
In terms of dragging 'The Last Stylebender' into deep waters and really testing his heart, Gastelum is the only fighter in the UFC so far who has seemed to put on an absolute war with Adesanya. He has, of course, suffered several losses in the UFC, but no loss to date for Adesanya has potentially taken as much time off his fighting career than the fight he had with Gastelum.
Robert Whittaker (First Time)
Israel Adesanya's first undisputed UFC title win was a special one. The main event of UFC 243 between Adesanya and the champion at the time, Robert Whittaker, was built up by the UFC as a huge Australia vs New Zealand fight and, with it being held in Melbourne, Australia in front of a packed stadium crowd of 57,000 people, the fight had to deliver to cater to expectations, and it did exactly that.
After some early back and forth moments in the fight with both men having some success, Adesanya began to take control of the fight and just over halfway through round two, 'The Last Stylebender' landed a nasty shot which squared 'The Reaper' right in the face, knocking him off balance and leading to a finish. Due to the nature of the win for Adesanya, with this being his first of two undisputed UFC title wins, this victory certainly deserves to be high up on the list of Adesanya's best UFC wins to date.
Adesanya and Whittaker went on to rematch each other at UFC 271 just 18 months down the line and the fight was a lot closer, but the result was the same; an Adesanya win.
Paulo Costa
Going into UFC 253, Israel Adesanya was considered an underdog for the very first time in his UFC career when he was scheduled to face off against undefeated, 13-0 knockout artist, Paulo Costa. From the very moment Costa entered the UFC Octagon, he was considered by many to be a future UFC world champion, as he had athleticism and power which not many other fighters alive had. Prior to facing Adesanya, Costa had a perfect professional record of 13-0, with 12 of his 13 wins coming via stoppage.
Despite coming in as an underdog, this was by far the easiest fight of Adesanya's UFC career so far, and he didn't really have to get out of second gear for it. 'The Last Stylebender' simply picked the Brazilian apart with his pinpoint striking, which in the second round just became too much for him to handle.
Alex Pereira (Rematch)
The most impressive and no doubt satisfying victory of Adesanya's UFC career so far is when he avenged multiple losses across both MMA and kickboxing to Alex Pereira at UFC 287. Adesanya and Pereira's rivalry had been ongoing for many years prior to both men entering the UFC and, due to both men's success crossing over to MMA, they managed to cross paths in a different sport to which they came from.
Given the result of their first fight in MMA with Pereira securing a TKO finish, Adesanya was out for blood in the rematch and that is what he got. Despite early dominance from 'Poatan,' Adesanya caught the Brazilian flush with probably the most powerful shot of his career and put him out cold in brutal fashion.
Adesanya's post-fight actions of showboating and celebrating in front of Pereira's children showed just how much this win meant for him and how important this one victory was for his MMA legacy.
