If things had gone Israel Adesanya’s way at UFC 259, The Last Stylebender would have sought to become the first man to hold a world title in three divisions simultaneously.
“Dare to be great” is an expression that Israel Adesanya uttered after coming up short in his bid to unseat light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. It was a tall task, and Adesanya came up a little bit short, with Blachowicz picking up a unanimous-decision victory in the event’s headliner. Even though Adesanya came up on the losing end for the first time in his career, it cannot be disputed that he shot for the stars by moving up and facing this daunting challenge.
What the public was not privy to is that Adesanya was aiming even higher, thinking bigger, and chasing a feat of greatness that has never been reached before: three titles in three divisions at the same time. In an interview with Unlocking the Cage on Sirius XM, Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Baremen disclosed that this is exactly what Adesanya had planned if he were to have defeated Blachowicz.
“I think I can answer this because it is beside the point now, we lost. If we won the title, for me and our management team and our team, we were going to go all the way,” Bareman said. “Why stop there? We were going to go up, but nothing to do with Jon Jones. Israel has stated he’s too close to Francis Ngannou to fight him. But, if Miocic won we were going to go all the way 100 percent.”
Jon Jones Wasn’t In Team Adesanya’s Plans
One name conspicuously missing from Adesanya’s ruined plans is Jon Jones. According to Bareman, the Adesanya camp had no concrete plans of facing Jones any time soon and that the move up to heavyweight would have been made strictly to challenge current champion Stipe Miocic. Adesanya had no interest in facing his friend and fellow African Francis Ngannou should Ngannou claim the title at UFC 260 and, apparently, there was no interest in facing Jones, either.
“Jon Jones, he doesn’t come into any of our planning. When we are planning Israel’s career, he doesn’t exist in any of those decisions,” Bareman said. “The only person that exists in Jon Jones’ head and life is Israel… If we beat Blachowicz we were going to try and do what has never been done before. Given that Miocic wins.”
Instead of moving up, Adesanya will be moving back down to middleweight to defend his title against a contender that is expected to be determined by the end of April after key divisional bouts have concluded.
What do you think of Israel Adesanya’s spoiled plans of becoming a three-division world champion?
