Luke Rockhold thinks Israel Adesanya will be successful in his quest to become a UFC dual champion.
Middleweight champ Adesanya will move up a weight class to challenge light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz in Saturday’s UFC 259 main event, which takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
Having already competed against Blachowicz in his past outing in July 2019, Rockhold (16-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) has a good gauge of what Blachowicz brings to the table. Despite being stopped by Blachowicz in Round 2, Rockhold still favors Adesanya in the fight. He looked back at some of his mistakes when he implemented a heavy grappling approach against Blachowicz, and he thinks Adesanya will have the right tools and approach to dethrone the champ.
“I like Israel in the fight,” Rockhold told Submission Radio. “You never know, Jan has a very herky jerky style. I rushed the fight. I thought he was more visible. He wasn’t as clean and as confident as I thought he would be. I just over put myself into a takedown situation, which I don’t normally do. I thought I could just finish the fight pretty easily, and I wasn’t used to his size and strength and overcommitted to a takedown and just juiced my arms up.
“And by the time I got out of the clinch I was just like, I was watered down, had all the blood in my arms, and I couldn’t get off like I should. If I was more patient and just waited for my shots, my opportunities, I think it would be a much different fight. And I see Israel has just this confidence, and I think he’s peaking right now. I think he’ll be more patient. I think he’ll see Jan, and I think he’ll find his mark more often than not.”
Rockhold admits he was surprised by the strength of Blachowicz, who easily fended off all five of his takedown attempts. While he expects Adesanya to get the job done, he could see Blachowicz finding success if he mixes things up.
“He’s really strong,” Rockhold said of Blachowicz. “He’s a really awkwardly built guy. He’s a big dude, thick dude, and he’s got power. And he’s got a somewhat effective style. It’s very strange, but if you really tune into it, you can pick it up. So, I think Israel is in tune, and he’ll be focused enough, and I would lean on him to get this thing. But Jan could throw him off with some stuff. He could go for some takedowns, or I don’t know how he works him and puts him up against the cage. There are different things to kind of sway this fight in his favor.”
Luke Rockhold picks ‘peaking’ Israel Adesanya to beat Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259
