In Fourth Title Defense, Israel Adesanya Will Face a Familiar Foe

A diamond stud glittered in Israel Adesanya’s left ear, while the right sleeve on his beige suede jacket rode up to expose a gleaming gold watch. The timepiece matched the shiny plates on the front of the black leather title belt that Adesanya had placed on the dais for the fight week news conference.

“I haven’t lost that step. I’m still hungry,” said Adesanya, 32, who will try to successfully defend his middleweight title in the Ultimate Fighting Championship for the fourth time since 2019 on Saturday night in Houston. His opponent will be Robert Whittaker, the 31-year-old former champion from Australia. It will be a rematch of their last meeting, in October 2019, when Adesanya snapped Whittaker’s nine-fight winning streak by knocking him out in the second round.

On Wednesday, Adesanya, a native of Nigeria who grew up in New Zealand, wore a smile befitting someone who had just attained the fight industry’s equivalent of job security. Earlier that day, his management team at Paradigm Sports had announced he had signed a new contract with the U.F.C. Details remain sparse — the main adjectives Paradigm used in its news release were “lucrative” and “multi-fight” — but there was no doubt that it was substantial.

The deal, which, according to the news release, could make Adesanya the U.F.C.’s second-highest-paid performer, is timely for Paradigm. While the heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has signaled that he would be willing to sit out for a year to become a free agent, Adesanya’s new contract secures the long-term presence of one of the U.F.C.’s other marquee athletes.

Adesanya, who is 21-1 as a professional mixed martial arts fighter, said the contract is worthy of his skills and his status as a crossover star.

“The thing I want to know: What’s my value to the company?” Adesanya said. “If you undersell me, you’re kidding yourself.”

Provided Adesanya, a striker with highlight-reel skills, defeats Whittaker, a rugged, well-rounded fighter with a 24-5 record, the new contract should give the U.F.C. some sorely needed stability at the top of its roster.

The U.F.C.’s biggest draw, the former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor, has lost his last two bouts, both knockouts against Dustin Poirier, an American known for his power shots. The second bout, in July 2021, left McGregor with a broken leg. Though McGregor is widely understood to be the U.F.C.’s best-paid fighter, it is unclear when he will compete again.

Adesanya is healthy enough to perform on Saturday, eight months after a dominant unanimous-decision victory over Marvin Vettori of Italy in June. He has now logged three defenses of the title he first won from Whittaker in 2019.

“It’s almost like he gets better every time,” said Dana White, the U.F.C.’s president, after Adesanya defeated Vettori.

After defeating every viable middleweight contender, Adesanya jumped to the 205-pound light-heavyweight division, where Jan Blachowicz, who was then the champion, overpowered him en route to a win by decision in March 2021. After that loss, Adesanya returned to 185 pounds — and began indulging past opponents in rematches.

The win over Vettori was their second meeting, with Adesanya winning both. That bout attracted 17,208 spectators to Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., and the $4.2 million in ticket sales set a record for the facility.

Adesanya’s first bout with Whittaker in 2019 was also a natural ticket-seller in Australia. Adesanya moved to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, when he was 10, while Whittaker was born in New Zealand, but raised in Sydney. The U.F.C. pitched the fight as the latest installment in an Australia-New Zealand rivalry that has captivated fans in both countries.

More than 57,000 spectators showed up to Marvel Stadium in Melbourne to see Adesanya score a knockout after pummeling Whittaker for two bruising rounds. Whittaker said recently that the high-pressure environment leading up to the bout negatively impacted his performance.

“I think our skill levels are much closer than the first fight dictated,” Whittaker said. “I lost, so I can’t really comment too much on it.”

Whittaker mentioned at the news conference that the loss drained him of his motivation to train, saying that he had to rebound from a “very dark place” to fine-tune his skills ahead of Saturday’s rematch.

When Adesanya was told of Whittaker’s comment, he commended his opponent for resurrecting his career, but he did not offer Whittaker much hope for a victory.

“Take him to the dark place again,” Adesanya said.