Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, says he has no intention of switching to boxing.
Top UFC fighters from Jorge Masvidal to Stipe Miocic want to make the crossover to boxing, but newly-crowned Adesanya has no intention of leaving the cage.
The Last Stylebender in a recent edition of Ebro said he plans to make mega-money in the UFC and can’t understand why other fighters won’t adopt the same attitude.
“This (UFC) is where I’m going to end my career,” Adesanya said.
“People say, ‘oh, after UFC, you can go to boxing and have one super fight maybe with Canelo and make a hundred million.’ I’m like, I can do that in the UFC. I might be the first fighter to do that in the UFC.”
Adesanya added that fighting in the ring wiould take away more of his skills, a situation he will not like to find himself, no matter the price.
“It’s silly. Why would I come to the proving ground of all fighting — the UFC — and then afterward, fight a guy and take away like 80 percent of my weapons,” he said.
“I want to kick people. I want to strangle someone. I can’t do that in boxing. I don’t want to get into the clinch and then okay, break.”
The 30-year-old unified the middleweight titles with a second round knockout of Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 and plans to defend his title against Yoel Romero next year.
Yetunde Adegoke
