LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya will be significantly lighter than Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259, although not as much as he indicated earlier this week.
Adesanya weighed 200.5 kilograms on Friday morning at the official UFC 259 scales at UFC Apex. He didn’t undress, as athletes usually do. He simply sweated and then had a cornerman bring him a box of pizza.
No one has ever weighed as lightly as Adesanya on Friday and won the UFC light heavyweight title, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Fighters who weigh less than 202 pounds are 0-2.
On Saturday, the UFC middleweight champion rises to the challenge for the light heavyweight title against champion Blachowicz. Earlier this week, Adesanya told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that she could weigh up to 193 pounds on scales. It was not the case. But Blachowicz weighed in at 205 pounds 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 only the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two different divisions simultaneously. The others were Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes, who still owns a pair. Nunes defends his UFC women’s featherweight title against Megan Anderson in Saturday’s main event.
Nunes was the first to scale on Friday morning and weighed 145 pounds. Anderson had 144.5. Nunes is the UFC champion for featherweight and heavyweight women. She is regarded as the greatest MMA fighter for women of all time.
ESPN has placed Adesanya 4th in the world in its pound ranking. In middleweight, Adesanya is 1st, while Blachowicz is 2nd in lightweight, behind the all-time great Jon, who is in the process of gaining weight.
Adesanya (20-0) has been the UFC middleweight champion since October 2019. He has two defenses in the title, including a dominant TKO in the second round over Paulo Costa at UFC 253 in September last year. Adesanya, 31, has won nine UFC rounds, returning to her February 2018 debut.
Blachowicz (27-8) won the vacant light heavyweight title with a second-round TKO over Dominick Reyes in UFC 253, the same card Adesanya titled against Costa. The native of Poland won four in a row, three of them by KO / TKO. Blachowicz, 38, has won eight of the last nine fights overall.
Petr Yan will try to defend his UFC title in the bantam category for the first time on this book as well. Yan weighed 135 pounds, and the challenger Aljamain Sterling was 134.5 pounds.