Israel Adesanya record: Next fight, professional career stats, weight, height and reach ahead of UFC middleweight title rematch against Robert Whittaker in Texas

Israel Adesanya will look to continue his dominance in the middleweight division when he faces Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 in Texas this weekend.

‘The Last Stylebender’ knocked out Whittaker in October 2019 to claim the middleweight world title as part of his rapid rise to the top.

2019 Carmen Mandato

Adesanya prevailed with a heroic performance at the Marvel Stadium in Australia to claim UFC gold and has been on a rampage ever since.

Besides a defeat to former light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, the Nigerian-born star has been flawless.

Here’s all you need to know about his career so far…

Israel Adesanya: Debut and who he has fought

The 32-year-old made his MMA debut at Supremacy Fighting Championship 9 in 2012 and earned a first-round TKO win over James Griffiths.

Adesanya scored another TKO win against John Vake before he took a two-year hiatus from the sport to take up boxing where he boasted a 5-1 record.

He returned to MMA in August 2015 for a victory over Song Kenan by TKO and went onto to secure a perfect 11-0 before joining the UFC.

Adesanya made a splash by beating Rob Wilkinson on his Octagon debut before another four wins earned him his title shot in that first meeting with Whittaker.

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During that run, he beat Marvin Vettori, Brad Tavares, former champion Anderson Silva and Kelvin Gastelum in an interim title fight.

Since capturing the middleweight title with his second-round KO win over Whittaker, Adesanya has defended the belt successfully three times.

The New Zealand native scored unanimous decision victories over Yoel Romero and Vettori in their rematch, sandwiched between a TKO win against Paulo Costa.

Adesanya is still unbeaten at middleweight but lost to Blachowicz last March in his foray into the light-heavyweight division.

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Israel Adesanya: Wins, losses and professional record

Adesanya is 21-1-0 in MMA, with his unanimous decision defeat to Blachowicz at light-heavyweight the only blemish on his record.

Out of his 21 wins, he has claimed 15 knockouts and was victorious in the other six bouts by way of decision.

Adesanya also boasts a 75 win record from his 80 kickboxing fights.

Adesanya vs Whittaker: Date and how to follow

The showpiece event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 12 and is being held at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

The prelim action will get going at 1am UK time on Sunday morning with the main card kicking off at 3am.

Adesanya vs Whittaker can then be expected at around 6am.

The action will be shown on BT Sport 1 with their coverage starting at 12:30am.

talkSPORT.com will also have all the build-up and reaction to the action throughout fight week.