Israel Adesanya is just another fight fan excited about UFC 311 right now.
‘The Last Stylebender’ will be watching from his home in New Zealand when Dana White’s first pay-per-view show of 2025 takes place at the Intuit Dome in California on Saturday night.
Two titles will be on the line at UFC 311. In the co-main event, bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will face off against 18-0 contender Umar Nurmagomedov.
In the headliner, pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev will rematch top contender Arman Tsarukyan for the lightweight championship.
Israel Adesanya backs Islam Makhachev ahead of UFC 311
Israel Adesanya recently broke down UFC 311 with his new training partner, Robert Whittaker.
The former middleweight champions, who fought twice inside the Octagon, have put aside their rivalry as they look to bounce back from defeats against Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev.
Whittaker has already made his feelings clear on Makhachev vs Tsaruykan 2.
Adesanya agrees with his prediction that the 155lb champion will retain his title at UFC 311 – but he refuses to totally write off one of MMA’s richest men scoring an upset.
“This is gonna be a wrestling fight,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel.
“This is gonna be WrestleMania. I think they are gonna have to test each other’s wrestling because they are that good. I don’t think it’s just gonna cancel each other out.
“Even though we are going Islam, I still think Arman has a dog in this fight. I just feel like sometimes, some people, when it comes to that moment, they take it.
“In this fight, I’m gonna go Islam. Just because he’s on a roll right now, he just seems to be getting better and better and better. Arman is doing the same as well. I was very impressed with his last fight and the way he handles the spotlight and everything. I just don’t think it’s gonna be enough to take on Makhachev.
-“Round five, late submission [win for Makhachev]. That defense against Charles ‘Do Bronx’ [Oliveira] was really slick. But when he’s tired, that’s what I am banking on. I just know Islam can definitely get the steamroll going.”
Robert Whittaker explains how old rival became teammate
Naturally, fight fans were shocked when they saw footage of Adesanya and Whittaker training together earlier this week.
‘The Reaper’ has since explained how he squashed his beef with Adesanya before traveling to train with his former rival’s team.
“It’s a funny world, honestly,” Whittaker said during an interview with Fox Sports. “If you would’ve asked me a few years ago if I ever seen this coming, the answer would’ve been, ‘Not in 100 years’.
“I guess where we were with the team back home, one of my training partners got injured, a couple of the boys were tired and had other commitments they wanted to focus on.
“I sat down with the team, and Alex [Prates] was like, ‘We need some bodies. How are we gonna get them?’ We started looking global. I think I’m fortunate enough to be able to train in most places and get along with most people.
“We started looking around and then like a lightning bolt we realized, ‘Mate, City Kickboxing is only a 2.5-hour flight away and they’ve got the bodies’.
“It’s New Zealand, the place of my birth. Everything just started lining up, right? So, Alex reached out to Eugene [Bareman] and had a conversation. Me, Alex, and a couple of training partners came over here to test the waters to see if we get along, and we are getting along.”
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