Israel Adesanya knows full well how hard it is to move up a weight class to challenge for as second world title.

The former UFC middleweight champion tested the waters at 205-pounds in March 2021 when he attempted to seize the light heavyweight strap from then-champ Jan Blachowicz, only to lose a unanimous decision after five rounds in which Blachowicz’s suffocating grappling and pocket striking proved to be the difference.

However while that wasn’t so much controversial as it was disappointing, Adesanya was of a different opinion in Perth last weekend when he witnessed the razor-thin fight between his occasional City Kickboxing trainer partner Alex Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev — where, along with Dan Hooker, he was confident that it would be the Australian who was to have his hand raised and create history Down Under.

Check out the footage below:

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