Israel Adesanya is closing in on another UFC record and he could break it this Saturday.
This coming Saturday, the former UFC middleweight champion returns to action after over a year out when he takes on Joe Pyfer in the UFC Seattle main event.
”The Last Stylebender’ has had a tough time in the cage as of late, and he will be hoping to break his three-fight losing skid with a win over his heavy hitting opponent.
Having been a permanent fixture in the middleweight rankings since his debut in the promotion, Israel Adesanya is closing in on another UFC record.
Adesanya could break Anderson Silva’s knockdown record at UFC Seattle
Win or lose on Saturday night, Adesanya could break Anderson Silva‘s longstanding record of the most knockdowns in the middleweight division.
The pair are currently tied with 13 knockdowns each, meaning one knockdown of Pyfer during his UFC Seattle main event, and Adesanya will overtake the all time great.
In his last three fights, the 36-year-old has failed to score a knockdown, and has suffered two himself.
With that, he will be hoping to return to the form that saw him set the record for the most amount of knockdowns in a UFC title fight when he and Kelvin Gastelum put on a Hall of Fame fight in 2019.
In fact, just over 53% of Adesanya’s knockdowns came in just two fights against Gastelum and against Derek Brunson, when he knocked Brunson out in the first round of their clash.
Depending on his performance, Adesanya may also find himself overtaking Sean Strickland with the longest average fight time in the division, currently just 42 seconds behind his former rival.
If the Nigerian can land a knockdown on ‘BodyBagz’, he will likely see his record stand for a long time as the only other active middleweight in the top 10 is Gregory Rodrigues, who has 7 knockdowns in the division.
Ahead of the 15th UFC main event of his career (Adesanya becomes just the fifth fighter to achieve that number behind Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz), he has admitted he may not have many more fights left in his career.