LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya will be significantly lighter than Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, though not as much as he indicated earlier this week.
Adesanya weighed 200.5 pounds Friday morning at the official UFC 259 weights at the UFC Apex. He didn’t undress, as athletes usually do. He just sweated and then had a stonemason bring him a box of pizza.
No one has ever weighed as lightly as Adesanya did on Friday and won the UFC heavyweight title, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Fighters who weighed less than 202 pounds are 0-2.
On Saturday, the UFC middleweight champion faces the heavyweight title challenge against champion Blachowicz. Earlier in the week, Adesanya told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that she could weigh just 193 pounds in the heavyweights. It was not like that. But Blachowicz weighed in at the 205-pound light heavyweight limit for a title fight and told ESPN he would weigh about 220 pounds on Saturday. Adesanya is unlikely to weigh much more on Saturday than she does now.
Adesanya is trying to become the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold two titles in two different divisions at once. The others were Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes, who still have a partner. Nunes defends her UFC women’s featherweight title against Megan Anderson in Saturday’s co-main event.
Nunes was the first to climb on Friday morning and weighed 145 pounds. Anderson had 144.5. Nunes is the UFC women’s featherweight and bantamweight champion. She is considered the best female MMA fighter of all time.
ESPN has ranked Adesanya at number 4 in the world in its pound-to-pound ranking. In middleweight, Adesanya is No. 1, while Blachowicz is No. 2 in light heavyweight behind the all-time great Jon Jones, who is in the process of shifting to heavyweight.
Adesanya (20-0) has been the UFC middleweight champion since October 2019. He has two title defenses, including a dominant second-round TKO over Paulo Costa in UFC 253 last September. Adesanya, 31, has won nine in a row in the UFC since her debut in February 2018.
Blachowicz (27-8) won the light heavyweight vacant title with a second-round TKO over Dominick Reyes in UFC 253, the same card Adesanya held against Costa. The Polish native has won four in a row, three of them by KO / TKO. Blachowicz, 38, has won eight of his last nine fights overall.
Petr Yan will try to defend his UFC bantamweight title for the first time on this card. Yan weighed 135 pounds and rival Aljamain Sterling, 134.5 pounds.