Uriah Hall Argues Israel Adesanya is “Picking Fights”

Israel Adesanya is moving up a weight class to pursue the UFC’s light heavyweight title, and will need to defeat the dangerous Jan Blachowicz in order to do so. But, Uriah Hall is claiming the middleweight champ is hand picking bouts.

Hall repeats wish to fight Adesanya, claims he’s “picking fights”

For quite some time now, there’s been talk about how a fight between Adesanya and Hall would play out. After all, both men are noted, highlight reel strikers.

The fight has yet to materialize, however, as Hall hasn’t reached the top of the middleweight division just yet. But, that hasn’t changed the fact the TUF alum really wants to fight ‘The Last Stylebender’.

Case in point, while speaking to MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck recently, Hall had this to say about Adesanya.

“I know this is just gonna get me in trouble; I think this dude’s just picking fights, man,” Hall said.

“He’s picking fights, and maybe he has that leverage. But maybe [I think that way] because I want to fight him so bad. I really want to fight him.”

“The last time I wanted to fight someone so bad was Josh Samman on The Ultimate Fighter,” Hall said.

“I want to fight him so bad because I get him. There’s not a lot of dynamic people left, and for those who are dynamic and not winning, they’re trying to be flashy.

[I’m talking about] that dynamic with fluidity. I have that fluidity.

It’s coming out. I lost it for awhile because I was in La La Land but man, I’m putting my sh*t together.”

The 36-year-old Hall also said this.

“Good god, I want to fight this f*cker so bad,” Hall explained. “But with the politics, the media, it’s like someone saying, ‘Well, you’re not worthy.’

Or, it’s the ranking system: ‘We here think you’re number eight. We feel that you’re number eight.

We’ve never competed before, but we think you’re number eight.’

Get the f*ck out of here. Who comes up with this ranking system? It’s a joke.

So you’re gonna tell me what number I am?

Thoughts?

So, there’s a couple of things to look at here. First, there certainly seems to be a lot of people who believe that although Adesanya will give up strength and size to Blachowicz, he’ll defeat the latter on March 6th.

Some have noted that Adesanya’s move up to 205 has happened earlier than expected, and it’s happening after Jon Jones has gone up to heavyweight.

It’s worth noting, however, that before Jared Cannonier lost to Robert Whittaker in October, Adesanya had said he wanted to fight Cannonier next (as Adesanya has already defeated Whittaker).

Further, it’s important to remember that a lot of people believed Yoel Romero and his wrestling would present a serious test to Adesanya. Accordingly, he went out of his way to lock up that bout (and won the fight via decision).

All that aside, will we see Hall and Adesanya fight at some point? It’s possible.

Currently Hall is riding a three fight winning streak and he’s expected to fight former champ, Chris Weidman next (the bout was supposed to happen next month but was postponed, after Weidman tested positive for COVID-19).

So, if Hall scores a big win over Weidman, he probably won’t be too far out from a title shot.