A legendary UFC run has Israel Adesanya in rare company

Sometimes it appears we can’t accept the legends for what they are and we place them under a more powerful microscope for a longer period of time than we do others. It’s almost as if we can’t believe what we see so we try to search for flaws in some sort of misguided effort to make them seem more human.

On Saturday, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya finished his fourth full year in the UFC by winning a unanimous decision over Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 to clearly establish himself not only as the best middleweight in the world but as one of its best fighters, period.

But it’s time to look beyond just the current and to document Adesanya’s place in history, because he’s putting together a résumé that places him in rare company.

The three best middleweights ever to fight in the UFC are, without question, Anderson Silva, Adesanya and Whittaker. While few have said Adesanya belongs in Silva’s class, consider this: Adesanya has a win over Silva and two victories over Whittaker.

There have never been more quality middleweights in the UFC than there are now. Four of them — Adesanya, Whittaker, Jared Cannonier and Derek Brunson — fought on Saturday’s card.

Cannonier recovered from a bad first round to stop Brunson in the second and end his five-fight winning streak. Whittaker already owns a win over Cannonier and Adesanya knocked out Brunson in one.

Silva was unquestionably great, and he scored some of the most spectacular finishes in MMA history, but he didn’t have to run the gauntlet that Adesanya has had to run.

After Vettori, Adesanya defeated Brad Tavares, who today holds the divisional record for most significant strikes landed. After that, it was nothing but the elite of the elite: Brunson, Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa, light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, Vettori again and then Whittaker again on Saturday. Go look up Silva’s record. He never had a string of opponents like that.

We also need to look at what the fighters were doing when they fought Adesanya. When he fought Whittaker in 2019, Whittaker had won nine in a row over nearly six years. Costa was 13-0 with 12 finishes. Vettori had won five in a row entering his second fight with Adesanya. Whittaker got Saturday’s bout by defeating Darren Till, Cannonier and Gastelum after losing to Adesanya in 2019. Whittaker went into the rematch having won 12 of 13 with the only loss in that span being to Adesanya, of course.

Whittaker was proud of his performance after going the distance. He felt he won, but he probably won’t feel that way once he watches the fight again. But Whittaker acknowledges his arch-rival’s greatness.

“He’s a very good fighter,” Whittaker said. “Honestly, I don’t see anyone else getting close to beating him. He’s a phenomenal fighter. He’s got good eyes. He’s got good timing and his physical makeup makes him dangerous.”

Silva reigned for longer and was arguably more dominant. He won the title by wrecking Rich Franklin in his second fight in the UFC. He had six wins by knockout and two wins by submission in his first eight UFC bouts. After a decision over Thales Leites at UFC 97 when Leites wouldn’t engage, Silva scored six finishes in his next seven fights.

As Adesanya has ascended the ladder in the sport, his finish rate has slowed.

Still, he’s on pace to overtake Silva. He’s still young and won’t turn 33 until July. There is no one in the top 10 outside of Whittaker who seems a remotely close match for him, and there is no young fighter on the horizon to point to and say with conviction that he’s the guy who will one day dethrone Adesanya.

Still, he’s five defenses behind Silva, and he’ll need to win those fights, even though he’ll be a massive favorite in each. The pressure will increase on Adesanya with each bout, especially as he begins to near Silva’s mark.

He’ll be the Super Bowl for every opponent he faces, while his motivation isn’t likely to be as great. He admitted he was bored during his fight last June with Vettori.

But appreciate this man while he’s here and in his prime. You are seeing an all-time great in action. There aren’t 6-foot-4 guys with long arms and long legs who are so quick and so agile and who have such diversified skillsets just hanging around on the street corner.

This is rare, elite stuff we’re watching, just like when we were in the middle of the Silva Era. Silva remains the standard by which every other UFC middleweight will be judged, but that may change in a few years.

If he keeps on the path he’s on, we’ll be talking about Israel Adesanya in the same hushed terms that we now reserve for Silva.