Israel Adesanya is not interested in moving to boxing, and his reasoning is sound

Over the last few years, we’ve heard countless mixed martial artists call for fights with the world’s top boxers. This very week, Jorge Masvidal angled for a fight with Canelo Alvarez and Stipe Miocic expressed interest in a fight with Tyson Fury. Don’t expect UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya to follow in their footsteps.

Adesanya shared his disinterest in a move to boxing on a recent episode of Ebro in the Morning.

“This is where I’m going to end my career,” Adesanya said of the UFC (via The Mac Life).

“It’s silly. Why would I come to the proving ground of all fighting — the UFC — and then afterward, fight a guy and take away like 80 percent of my weapons,” Adesanya continued. “I just want to kick people. I want to strangle someone. I can’t do that in boxing. I don’t want to get into the clinch and then okay, break.”

The appeal of MMA, Adesanya continued, is that he can use all of the tools at his disposal.

“Same thing with kickboxing, same thing with jiu-jitsu, same thing with judo, same thing with wrestling, they’re all limited styles of fighting,” he said.

From there, Adesanya shared what he believes is the key difference between a boxer and a fighter.

“Everyone throws that greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, is Canelo [Alvarez],” he said said. “He’s the pound-for-pound — maybe —greatest boxer right now. Not fighter. You have to test yourself against another style.

“People say, ‘oh, after UFC, you can go to boxing and have one super fight maybe with Canelo and make a hundred million’. I’m like, I can do that in the UFC. I might be the first fighter to do that in the UFC,” he concluded.

What do you think of these comments from Israel Adesanya?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/14/2019.