Adesanya backs Usman to beat Edwards on Saturday 

Nigeria-born Israel Adesanya has backed his compatriot Kamaru Usman to beat British Leon Edwards in the  UFC 278 fight in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

Edwards is currently riding a 10-fight unbeaten streak and although he’s coming into this contest against Kamaru Usman as the underdog, he’s as confident as he’s ever been that he can get past the king at 170 pounds.

A lot of different fighters have voiced their thoughts and opinions on what’s going to go down on Saturday night and that includes Adesanya.

The UFC middleweight champion knows both men pretty well and when previewing the bout, he was fairly confident in picking Usman to retain the title.

“It’s a no-brainer for me because I know what we’re doing. Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman, what we’ve been doing as three fighters from Africa when there’s only less than 25 Africans on the UFC roster that are over 500 at the moment. For there to be three champions in this era, and winning, crazy. So, I wanna keep the three kings going.”

“But, the biggest threat to Kamaru’s throne is Leon Edwards. I’m going with Kamaru because of his momentum right now, also I know how hard he works.”

Adesanya went on to note that he does ‘love’ Edwards and appreciated their time together recently in London, suggesting that the fight could resemble Izzy’s battle against Kelvin Gastelum.

Although he’s caught some criticism from fans in the wake of his fight against Jared Cannonier, there’s no denying that Adesanya is one of the most dominant champions of this generation.

He continues to turn back challengers who come after the gold and later this year, at the world’s most famous arena, he’ll have the opportunity to prove himself once again in the main event of UFC 281.

He’ll defend the title against long-time rival Alex Pereira who, as many people know, holds two victories over Izzy from their days in kickboxing.