After Robert Whittaker’s impressive victory at UFC Fight Island 3, the UFC’s middleweight division is in an interesting position as we have a lot of fights to be settled and arranged.
The question is, who’s next for Whittaker? For me, it has to be Adesanya again. Whittaker is still the no.1 contender after his decision victory against Darren Till and I think he has to be the man to face the winner of Adesanya vs Costa next year. However, I think ‘The Reaper’ would like to fight again this year as he’s really getting back into the sport after his short break. In this case, maybe we could possibly see Whittaker vs Jared Cannonier, a fight which we were supposed to see at UFC 248 before Rob withdrew from the fight.
We have had Adesanya vs Costa confirmed for UFC 253, which will take place on September 19th and I honestly can’t wait for that one. Costa’s press forward fight style favours Adesanya’s brilliant kickboxing and counter-striking but the power Costa has can knock anyone’s lights out. This bout has the potential to be the fight of the year if it goes for at least four rounds.
I’d love to see the no.4 and 5 ranked Yoel Romero and Till go at it but it seems like Romero has business to settle with Uriah Hall as he looks to get his first win since 2018. This currently leaves Till to fight Hermansson, whos coming off a pretty impressive performance against Kelvin Gastelum, or he could fight Jared Cannonier who appears to be free at this moment in time. However, I feel like at the age of 36 Cannonier knows he doesn’t have that much time left before his body begins to catch up with him so he’d be looking to fight the men ranked higher, which is only Whittaker, Costa and the champ Adesanya.
Finally, on Sunday, Derek Brunson and Edmen Shahbazyan go at each other in the main event on Fight Night. ‘The Golden Boy’ Edmen is only 22 years old and he’s looking to keep his 11-0 undefeated streak against the experienced Brunson. I can’t wait to watch that one at the weekend as well. The youngster has looked really good so far as well, scoring 10 first-round finishes in his 11 fights so far.
The UFC Middleweight Division is looking really good right now. I can’t wait to see the results of the fights set up already and the ones yet to come!
TheWrestlingFallacy 