Given that he's already defeated many of the top contenders in the division — in some cases, twice — UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is always on the hunt for fresh meat.
Adesanya will get said fresh meat when he defends his 185-pound crown against Sean Strickland in the UFC 293 headliner this upcoming Saturday in Sydney, Australia.
Afterwards, he could end up facing another new opponent in Dricus du Plessis, who was originally set to fight him at UFC 293, but had to decline as the turnaround was too quick for him.
Beyond that, there's an even fresher potential matchup for Adesanya — and arguably the most intriguing — in Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev returns to action at UFC 294 on Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi when he fights rival Paulo Costa in a middleweight encounter.
It will be his first fight against a middleweight contender and there's a case to be made that the winner could get the next title shot. While Adesanya doesn't know who will win, he is rooting for Chimaev to come out on top.
“I don’t know who’s going to win but I think if I’m favoring, I might be favoring Khamzat a little bit more,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. “Because I like new blood.”
Adesanya notably defeated Costa at UFC 253 back in Sept. 2020 with a second-round TKO win. Both fighters were undefeated at the time with Costa carrying plenty of hype going into the fight. However, Adesanya outclassed him and defeated him with ease.
That said, he warned Chimaev that Costa still remains a hard fight for just about everyone else in the division.
“I just made Paulo look easy but trust me, he’s a hard fight,” Adesanya said. “He’s a hard fight but I made him look easy. But I think I’m rooting for Khamzat more in that fight.”
Should Chimaev win, many will be campaigning for him to get the next title shot even over Du Plessis. Adesanya certainly doesn't seem to mind the idea as he's even open to fighting Chimaev before the end of the year.
“Ain’t that funny?” Adesanya added. “I’m the one actually pushing for fights. I’m even trying to have one more this year. We’ll see. Yeah, definitely [might get one more fight this year]. We’ll see.”
But first things first — Adesanya will have to get past the test of Strickland.
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