Anyone else over the whole “champ champ” thing?
I will admit that it was quite cool when Conor McGregor kept his word and won the lightweight title not long after claiming £ 145 gold. I did not exactly stand and rejoice when the performance was repeated by Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo; but hey, good for them.
Sorry, but Amanda Nunes does not count because there is no such thing as a women’s featherweight division, which is why the promotion leaves it blank on the official rankings. Can you name five 145-pound candidates who are not puffed up bantam weights?
Three?
The ‘champ champ’ phenomenon is in the news again as reigning middleweight title holder Israel Adesanya will climb to 205 pounds to fight light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, which is the Polish powerhouse’s first title defense since Dominick Reyes flattened last September.
But the downside to having a champion possess simultaneous titles in two different weight classes is that one of them inevitably screws up. McGregor is never featherweight again, just as Cormier and Cejudo decided to keep the heavier weight. It not only stabs the section, it casts a shadow of doubt over the sequel.
Max Holloway, for example, never has to recapture McGregor on his way to the title.
Adesanya (20-0) wants to break the form by returning to the middleweight division 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 the 27-8 Blachowicz.
“I will definitely go back to 185,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. ‘I still have something in my head that might interest me. But to definitely go back to 185 is my goal. I want to keep my department going. ”
If Adesanya does indeed return to middleweight, Glover Teixeira, the no. 1, light heavyweight contender in the wind, so to speak, with Aleksandar Rakic - assuming ‘Rocket’ can make a statement against Thiago Santos, a 205-pound power play that also takes place at UFC 259.
‘If Adesanya wins, what happens then? Will Adesanya defend at 185 or 205? I do not know, ”Teixeira told MMA Fighting. “If it means sitting and waiting until June, August, I do not know, maybe I would wait, I do not care.”
I’m not sure what spoilage Adesanya is waiting for at 185 pounds. Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa are at number 1 and no, respectively. 2 and “The Last Stylebender” stopped them both. Darren Till has also entered the conversation in recent weeks, but ‘The Gorilla’ has dropped three of his last four and has been shot miles away from a title.
We must also include Jon Jones in the equation. The promotion is prepared to send Adesanya into a battle against ‘Bones’, depending on how well the former light heavyweight champion performs in heavyweight, where he is expected to pull the winner of Stipe Miocic against Francis Ngannou and another division will create.
Tensy …
“Winning Blachowicz would be better for me,” Teixeira said. “And better for everyone.”