Nigeria’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion of the world, Israel ‘Last Style Bender’ Adesanya will step away temporarily from mixed martial arts (MMA) to be a ring-side analyst for the upcoming comeback fight of former boxing champ, ‘iron’ Mike Tyson, megasportsarena.com reports.
In what would be another test of Adesanya’s eloquence, which has seen him make dramatic though controversial post-fight comments since popping into the scene, the New Zealand-based UFC star will make a different class of headlines as an analyst for Tyson’s much-anticipated bout with Roy Jones Jr this weekend
This is sequel to reports that Adesanya has been signed on to join experts in the commentary box for Saturday’s exhibition fight, which the 31-year-old UFC middleweight champ confirmed on social media, though he had previously said moving to boxing would be a step backwards for him.
The MMA star will now reel lyrical when 54-year-old Tyson goes toe-to-toe with 51-year-old Jones in an eight-round bout in Los Angeles, USA this Saturday night, ahead of which the Nigerian fighter disclosed that he will be offering his minute-by-minute views on the fight on pay-per-view television.
Tyson and Jones will tango in a eight-round charity bout, with blow-by-blow comments running from Adesanya, who is still hogging headlines for what he said about boxing back in February, when he declared: ‘Everyone keeps saying the same thing to me. You should go into boxing after a few UFC fights.
“Why would I limit myself to just two weapon out of my eight limbs which I can use? I feel like it’s a step backwards. There’s no need to go to boxing to make that kind of money. We can do it right here in the UFC.’
Nonetheless, it is also another opportunity of spotlight moments for ‘The Last Style Bender,’ who boasts of an unblemished 20-0 record in UFC and last fought in September when he defeated the previously unbeaten Paulo Costa via second round knockout at UFC 253 to defend his middleweight title.
He defeated Yoel Romero back in March in his first defence of the UFC title that he unified by knocking out Robert Whittaker in Melbourne just over a year ago and, despite not wanting to make the move into boxing, Adesanya’s views on the pugilists’ sport are highly valued.
He disclosed earlier this week that he is ‘confident’ his next fight inside the Octagon will be at light heavyweight against Jan Blachowicz as he bids to become a two-weight champion, while UFC president, Dana White recently said he expects Adesanya to move up to 205 pounds to make the step up.
White himself reacted with bemusement earlier this week after learning there would be no knockouts in the Tyson-Jones Jr bout, but cut a bemused figure when discovering that knockouts have been banned
White said when quizzed by journalists after UFC 255 on Saturday: “There’s no knockouts? They’re not allowed to knock each other out? How do you enforce that? I’d like to bet that doesn’t happen. Can you bet on that?! Oh s***! You can’t even bet on this fight? I did not know that. I don’t even know what to say to that.”
