Israel Adesanya: Navajo Stirling vs. Jan Blachowicz will be 'battle of leg kicks'
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Israel Adesanya has insight on what it's like to fight Jan Blachowicz.
Adesanya's longtime training partner Navajo Stirling (10-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) meets Blachowicz (29-11-2 MMA, 12-8-2 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 283 (Paramount+) co-main event at Belgrade Arena in Serbia.
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When Adesanya was UFC middleweight champion, he attempted to claim a second belt by challenging Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title. Blachowicz's grappling proved to be too much when he took down Adesanya three times en route to a unanimous decision win at UFC 259.
However, Adesanya doesn't see the same thing happening to Stirling.
"He said that I hit the hardest because I rocked him at one point, but then he also veteranship, poker face, and when I rushed in for the kill, I think that was the first takedown," Adesanya said on fighting Blachowicz on his YouTube channel. "But also, I'm not Navajo. Navajo, he's a better wrestler than me. He's bigger. He knows how to use his weight, as well. There's been rounds where he just like kept me on bottom and forced me to have to work, same way Jan did, so I don't think he's going to have an issue doing that to Jan."
Stirling will compete for the fifth time in less than 15 months. He fought as recently as last month when he finished Ion Cutelaba at UFC Fight Night 279, and Adesanya sees his activity being a positive.
"I think Nav being as active as he is, still fit, I'm sure Nav can be active in this," Adesanya said. "He can be active for three rounds, 15 minutes, easy. Jan will probably try and mix in the grappling straight away within the first round. They'll be ready for the takedowns, they'll be ready to stop the shot whenever he changes level because that's normally when he gets the takedowns because while you're punching, he'll just change level. I think something that they'll both be throwing are leg kicks. It'll be battle of the leg kicks, who can get who first, because that'll be important."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Israel Adesanya: Navajo Stirling vs. Jan Blachowicz will be 'battle of leg kicks'