Israel Adesanya Reveals UFC Africa ‘Is In The Works’

As possibly the most hyped fighter in the UFC right now, Israel Adesanya has the biggest fight of his career this Saturday. ‘The Last Stylebender’ will take on legendary former champion Anderson Silva in the main event of February 9, 2019’s UFC 234 from Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.

Adesanya may already be looking ahead to bigger and better things. It’s true that the 43-year-old Silva is nowhere near the fighter he was during his unparalleled run. No fighter his age ever would be. So after storming into the UFC with four wins, Adesanya is deservedly a huge favorite here. So it may be looking to the future, but Adesanya is teasing a huge event for the future.

According to ‘The Last Stylebender,’ who lives in New Zealand but hails from Africa, in a conversation with ESPN, UFC Africa is already in the works. He’s talked to UFC President Dana White about the first event on African soil:

“It’s already in the works, we’ve been talking about it for a while. I’ve talked to Dana as well when I had my meeting with him.”

Pressed for a few more details, Adesanya said he couldn’t disclose all the goods just yet. He simply said he was a very persuasive man:

“I can’t disclose that. We just talk about everything. Even this fight [against Silva] right now, it’s happening the way I want it to happen. I can be very persuasive. I am a very persuasive man.”

It’s an exciting prospect for MMA, Adesanya claims, because he’s actually the smallest of his people:

“I’m the runt of my people. You go home, you just take away the soccer ball and put some gloves in their hands; we’ve got some good boxers back home as well. We just have to farm, find out where the gyms are back home. But I’m the runt of my people, so if I can be doing great things in what I’m doing, for anyone who’s coming up next it’s going to be crazy.

Adesanya closed on the topic by offering his stance that many elite fighters would be coming out of Nigeria. He pointed to Kamaru Usman and himself as examples:

“Eventually we’re going to have a lot of guys [coming through the UFC]. Kamaru Usman is fighting for the title next; he’s a Nigerian-born fighter [and] he’s going to fight for the [welterweight] title next against Tyron Woodley, so he might be the first Nigerian UFC champion. But I don’t mind. I’ll be the second Nigerian UFC champion. That would be cool, to take it back to Africa.”