EXCLUSIVE: UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya Still Eyeing Super Fight With Darren Till, Wants Wembley Showdown

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is still keen to throw it down with Darren Till and wants the fight to happen on British soil.

Till famously slid into Adesanya's DM's with a call-out video that was both frightening and hilarious in equal measure back in the day and there's huge interest from fans in seeing the two mix it up.

Liverpudlian Till is on a two-fight losing streak and has dropped to eighth in the middleweight rankings.

But in an exclusive interview, Adesanya is more than willing to put his title on the line against 'The Gorilla' in a huge headline bout in the near future - and revealed he sent a message support after his loss to Derek Brunson.

"Any excuse to headline the O2 or Wembley," Adesanya told SPORTbible.

"I’ve laid it up for him a few times and he’s fumbled. I feel like you never say never for a guy like that. I’ll use a guy like [Michael] Bisping for example. 

“Everyone counted him out, including myself – and then look how he ended up being champion. 

“I think Till can end up doing great things in this sport, he just needs to put it all together first. 

“This is a game where unfortunately we have recency bias. He can have a couple of wins and he’s right back in the picture. 

“I slid in his [DMs] after his last loss because he wasn’t online for a while and I can imagine what he might have been going through. 

“I slid into this DMs to say keep your head up. He’s all good.” 

Image: PA

The Last Stylebender suffered his first defeat of his career when he moved up to light heavyweight to face then-champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 in March 2021.

He has since got back to winning ways with consecutive unanimous decision victories over Marvin Vettori and Robert Whittaker, beating the latter for a second time after five grueling rounds, to move to 22-1.

“You get time in the Octagon and you get that added to your XP," Adesanya said on his last fight going the distance.

"For me I just wanted that fight to be a lot more decisive. 

“I knew I won the fight but I have high expectations of myself. It’s not about what other people think, it’s what I feel. 

“I knew I should have put this guy away even worse than the last time and I was on my way to doing so. 

“I just have to watch the fight back to see where I maybe took my finger off the trigger."

Image: PA

The Kiwi-Nigerian fighter has defended his title on four occasions and is fastly becoming one of the greatest middleweights of all-time.

Currently the GOAT in the middleweight division is widely deemed to be UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva, who holds the record for the longest title in the promotion's history.

Adesanya added: "Definitely I think I am [on the way to surpassing Silva]

"It’s just about time and patience because I’m still in it [the division]. 

"When I first came into the game with the UFC people were like, ‘Anderson Silva 2.0’. I was just like, ‘Give me time and all those comparisons will fall off and they did. 

“It’s almost a disservice to compare me to him. People try and do it because we’re in the same weight class, I have his former belt. 

“We’re two different people on our own journeys. These are all semantics. It’s all subjective as well. I don’t think about those things, I just literally focus on my work.”

In Melbourne, Australia in 2019, the two met in a classic 'passing of the torch' encounter that saw Adesanya win unanimously.

Image: PA

The two bowed to one another on the canvas in an ultimate show of respect at the end of the bout.

“I wasn’t expecting that to even happen," the 32-year-old explained.

"I never thought that fight would materialise and then it was like, ‘Oh s**t, I need to take this fight for history!’ 

“I’m glad I did and I’m glad it turned out the way it was. It was historic, it was legendary and that’s something no-one can ever take from us. 

“He’s still one of my favourite fighters ever so for me to fight against him, it was like Allen Iverson playing against Michael Jordan. Idols become rivals. It was crazy.” 

Dominating the middleweight division is Adesanya's goal right now and he's well on the way to doing it.

Image: PA

But he still feels as though there is unfinished business at light heavyweight.

He stated: "Yeah, I’ll do that later but right now it’s 185lb. That’s just a side mission, this is the main mission. 

“My main focus is 185lb and taking it one fight at a time.” 

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