Israel Adesanya feels sufficiently fresh after his fight with Paulo Costa that he plans to fight again before the end of this year.

The middleweight champion defended his world title on Saturday night in Abu Dhabi with a sensational performance that will go down as a clinic in the eyes of many. Despite starring in two huge fights this year, it’s clear Adesanya already has an idea in mind for his next outing — and it’s coming quicker than most would have anticipated.

“I’m fresh. I wanna fight fast,” Adesanya said, speaking to ESPN. “This year. I want to fight this year. We’ll talk, we talked a little bit last night, but we’ll talk some more. I can’t say anything yet, but we got some plans. I want to fight again this year. I ain’t fucking around, Ariel, I ain’t fucking around. I’m fresh, bro.

“My foot only hurts from kicking his ass.”

So far, Adesanya’s plan seems to have been to meet the winner of the upcoming Jared Cannonier vs. Robert Whittaker fight. Today, however, the 31-year old indicated he was open to alternative options.

“We’ll see. We’ll see how they do,” he said.

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