Chael Sonnen believes Israel Adesanya is coming for Conor McGregor‘s spot as the top draw in MMA.

Adesanya is the current UFC middleweight champion and one of the most popular fighters on the roster. Additionally, “The Last Stylebender” has proven to be one of the top draws in the sport.

That was further evident by how much traction his confrontation with Dricus du Plessis got in the aftermath of the latter's win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 this past weekend.

While Adesanya's comments during the confrontation rubbed some people the wrong way, Sonnen believes Adesanya was the star of the show.

He even went as far as saying Adesanya is close to eclipsing McGregor's star power.

“You know who should be watching this? … Conor McGregor,” Sonnen said on The MMA Hour. “Izzy is coming for his spot. Izzy’s coming for top draw in this sport and he’s not that far away. By the way, he truly made that program for me.

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“… I'm seeing that Izzy can play that same game [being a major attraction] and he can play it very powerfully.”

It's certainly a bold claim and while anything is possible in the future, it's still hard to see Adesanya being more of a household name than McGregor.

After all, the Irishman is still the biggest superstar in MMA history and no other fighter in the sport has eclipsed him as far as pay-per-view buys go.

Unless Israel Adesanya is able to consistently emulate McGregor on that level, the latter will continue to be the top draw of the sport.