Kiwi UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has seen his bid for a second title dented following comments from light heavyweight fighter Glover Teixeira and UFC president Dana White.
1 NEWS exclusively revealed last month Adesanya and coach Eugene Bareman were looking to set up a fight with light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz after his decisive TKO win over Paulo Costa – a fight Blachowicz himself later said he was happy to sign on for.
However, despite both champions seemingly agreeing to the fight, the UFC itself was yet to come on board.
That key condition now appears unlikely following UFC Vegas 13’s main event on Sunday which saw Teixeira convincingly take down Thiago Santos.
Teixeira, 41, made his case for a title shot instead of Adesanya immediately after the fight.
"Dana White, come on man, I'm an old man over here," says Teixeira. "You're going to give the shot to Adesanya and make me wait?
"Five fights in a row, beating these young guys, it's not easy. Give me that title shot."
Following Teixeira’s call out, UFC president White admitted Teixeira made a great point and was deserving of a title shot.
"I was sitting listening to him give his interview, he's not wrong," White told ESPN. "It's like, 'I deserve the shot, I've been here forever.'
"He's on a streak, he looked great tonight. What's funny is, every time I count this guy and think that I don't know if you got it in you, he proves me wrong.
"He looked incredible tonight. It's something we need to figure out.
"But I heard him and I agree with him and I'm taking him serious [sic]. I'm not going to doubt this guy anymore."
Blachowicz also chimed in on Teixeira’s statement, saying he was happy to fight him or Adesanya as long as it was in March next year.
Blachowicz currently sits at 27-8 in his career and is currently on a four-fight win streak.
The latest win in that streak was in September at UFC 253 when he captured the title vacated by former light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones – another rival of Adesanya’s – with a TKO win over Dominick Reyes.
Coincidentally, it was the co-main event to Adesanya’s middleweight title defence in which he disposed of Paulo Costa easily to move to an undefeated record of 20-0.
Teixeira moved to 32-7 following his submission win over Santos.
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