Israel Adesanya has quickly become an elite fighter.
Adesanya defends his middleweight title Saturday night at UFC 276 vs. top contender Jared Cannonier.
The card is a stacked one, as Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway meet for a third time over the featherweight belt. The main card also includes Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira, Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena and Pedro Munhoz vs. Sean O’Malley.
But most of the attention and eyes will be fixated on Adesanya.
And rightfully so.
The 32-year-old has posted back-to-back decision wins over Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori to defend his title. The only loss for Adesanya in his career came to Jan Blachowicz when he moved up to light heavyweight title challenge for that title.
Adesanya has defended his belt since unifying the titles in 2019 with a knockout of Whittaker. He holds wins over Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa to go along with the Vettori and Whittaker triumphs.
Prior to becoming a champion, he bested Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum and Derek Brunson just to name a few.
Plain and simply put, this is a top-of-the-line fighter. And he also is a showman.
