Adesanya fight confirmed
Israel Adesanya’s first defence of his undisputed UFC middleweight title has been confirmed.
Dana White, the mixed martial arts promotion’s president, told ESPN that Adesanya (18-0) will headline UFC 248 against Cuban Yoel Romero (13-4) in Las Vegas on March 7 (March 8 NZ time).
Adesanya unified the division when he knocked out Robert Whittaker in the second round at UFC 243 in Melbourne last October.
The Nigerian-born New Zealander was initially expected to face undefeated Brazilian Paulo Costa before he was forced to undergo biceps surgery.
Adesanya then set his sights on the third-ranked Romero, a former freestyle wrestling world champion and silver medallist at the 2000 Olympics who is also renowned for his explosive power.
White initially seemed cool on the matchup given Romero had dropped three of his last four bouts, albeit all three were close decisions.
Prior to that, the 42-year-old was on an eight-fight win streak.
But the UFC president eventually came around to the idea, recently saying he respected Adesanya for calling out a fighter who is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous in the division, regardless of his recent record.
Adesanya is determined to clean out the division and adding Romero’s name to his list of scalps would be a key step towards fulfilling that goal.
‘‘This is what challenges me, a guy like that. He’s a beast, same thing with Robert, he’s a beast.
‘‘But there’s levels to this and if you can make that look easy it just makes your status legendary,’’ Adesanya said late last year.
‘‘It’s all about the challenges. Taking out Robert Whittaker in the second round in his home country, doing that to Romero... that would be dope.’’
It is the second championship fight on the card with China’s Zhang Weili scheduled to make her first defence of the women’s strawweight title against Poland’s Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Whittaker was also due to return to action at UFC 248, however, he withdrew from his bout against Jared Cannonier on Thursday due to personal reasons.
Officials were said to be working on finding another top contender to meet Cannonier on the card.