Israel Adesanya doesn’t appear keen on fighting Chris Weidman in the immediate future, but the reigning UFC middleweight champion revealed he’s thought about the matchup.
Following Adesanya’s (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) successful title defense against Paulo Costa at UFC 253 this past month, Weidman (15-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC), who was also once an unbeaten 185-pound champion, put his name into the conversation to fight “The Last Stylebender.”
Weidman explained how he’s a bad matchup for Adesanya and his mix of striking, wrestling and jiu-jitsu would present something that hasn’t been seen yet. Weidman doubled down on Friday, claiming on social media that the matchup would be “easy money” for him (via Twitter):
Heyyy I just realized I have 2 common opponents with Adesanya…Gastelum who I finished. Then Silva who I finished twice. Adesanya squeaked by decisions on both of those guys.. Adesanya is just another Silva without the black belt in Jitsu. Easy
— Chris Weidman (@chrisweidman) October 3, 2020
Heyyy I just realized I have 2 common opponents with Adesanya…Gastelum who I finished. Then Silva who I finished twice. Adesanya squeaked by decisions on both of those guys.. Adesanya is just another Silva without the black belt in Jitsu. Easy
Adesanya, who has been extremely active online since his win, stoking the flame of feuds with Costa and Jon Jones, turned his focus to Weidman after the latest message.
He bluntly told Weidman, who has just two wins in his past seven fights and is coming off a narrow victory over Omari Akhmedov at UFC on ESPN+ 33 in August, that he needs to get more positive results before a showdown would be realistic.
In his responses, Adesanya attached an old video where he was clearly sizing up Weidman (via Twitter):
@chrisweidman …get some wins first please.
I already have you figured out.
I’ve sized you up a few times.
Watched you hit and miss
I know how to fuck up your single and double leg attacks
I’m 10 steps ahead like I said.
I knew I would use this clip one day to prove that I knew! pic.twitter.com/6CJw46Kd5x— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) October 3, 2020
…get some wins first please.
I already have you figured out.
I’ve sized you up a few times.
Watched you hit and miss
I know how to fuck up your single and double leg attacks
I’m 10 steps ahead like I said.
I knew I would use this clip one day to prove that I knew!
They start it…I finish it.
I can troll like 5 people at a time.
But then the quality drops.
Gets some wins first Chris.
You don’t want WAR!! https://t.co/r5WkfLJaNK— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) October 3, 2020
They start it…I finish it.
I can troll like 5 people at a time.
But then the quality drops.
Gets some wins first Chris.
You don’t want WAR!!
As of now, Weidman doesn’t appear to be anywhere in the running for a fight with Adesanya. The champion is currently targeting a matchup with Jared Cannonier, should he get past Robert Whittaker at UFC 254 on Oct. 24.