Israel Adesanya has no interest in boxing crossover fights, plans to make mega-money in UFC

Everyone from Jorge Masvidal to Stipe Miocic wants to make the crossover to boxing, but newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has no intention of ever leaving the cage.

Speaking on a recent edition of Ebro in the Morning, ‘The Last Stylebender’ said he plans to make mega-money in the UFC and can’t understand why other fighters won’t adopt the same attitude.

“This [UFC] is where I’m going to end my career,” Adesanya said (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA). “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.”

Adesanya, a former kickboxing world champion, went on to state that the ‘baddest motherf-ckers’ in the world belong in the UFC, not boxing or any other limited combat sport.

“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,” he said. “… I 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.

“Same thing with kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, judo, wrestling — they’re all limited styles of fighting. If you want to be the baddest motherfucker in the world. Pound-for-pound…everyone throws that greatest fighter, pound-for-pound is Canelo [Alvarez]. He’s the pound-for-pound maybe greatest boxer right now. Not fighter. You have to test yourself against another style.”

The 30-year-old unified the middleweight titles with a second-round knockout of Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 and plans to defend his title against Yoel Romero in the new year.