While most middleweight top contenders hope Israel Adesanya sticks around the middleweight division uninterrupted, #4-ranked Jack Hermansson would love to see the champ make a pit stop at 205.
It wasn’t long ago that Jack Hermansson was possibly one fight away from securing himself a crack at middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. If you ask Hermansson, he’s still right there in the mix, and a win tomorrow night at UFC Vegas 16 could get him a title shot or at least a #1 contender fight. And if Dana White follows through on his plans to set up a light heavyweight title fight between Jan Blachowicz and Israel Adesanya, Hermansson would not mind waiting.
“Adesanya looks like he’ll be fighting Jan,” Hermansson told MMA Junkie. “In that case, I want to fight with Adesanya. I feel like he fought Whittaker, he fought Paulo Costa. Cannonier is coming from a loss. So I could wait for ‘Izzy’ and give him his next title defense at middleweight after Jan. If the UFC wants me to, I could fight Costa or Whittaker as a contender fight, as well, so I think that’s what’s up for the next year.”
Part of the reason Jack Hermansson is so Zen about the middleweight title picture and where he fits in it is that he actually would rather Adesanya go up and capture the light heavyweight championship. Why? Because the only thing better than beating a champion is beating a double champion.
“I still feel like the middleweight belt is going to be more precious to Adesanya,” Hermansson said. “Something tells me that he will go down and defend his belt at middleweight. It would be really cool if he managed to do it because I would love to fight him when he’s a double champ and undefeated and all. It would be amazing to fight him at that point, obviously.”
Jack Hermansson will first need to get past an early UFC opponent of Israel Adesanya in Marvin Vettori tomorrow night at UFC Vegas 16. A win may not lead to a title shot, but it could get the ball rolling on a chain of events that could lead to Hermansson’s fantasy bout that pits him against a double-champ version of Israel Adesanya later down the road.
Do you believe we will ever see a fight between Israel Adesanya and Jack Hermansson?
