Israel Adesanya will have a shot at UFC history in his next fight, when he meets Jan Blachowicz for the light-heavyweight title.
UFC president Dana White has confirmed the bout, a week after Newshub revealed Adesanya's intentions to challenge the Polish power puncher.
Blachowicz won the light-heavyweight title in September, knocking out Dominic Reyes on UFC 'Fight Island', the same night Adesanya defended his middleweight crown against Paolo Costa.
White says his willingness to match two of his champions together is due to lack of a genuine contenders at either weight class.
"Listen, when the fight was over on ‘Fight Island’ - the last fight [at UFC 254] - I was like, ‘I’m going to have to sit down with this kid [Adesanya] and convince him on why he needs to fight Whittaker," White says.
"Whittaker comes out and says he doesn’t want to fight him - craziest [expletive] I’ve ever seen. Yeah, there’s no arguing with Israel now.
"I thought Whittaker deserved the shot and Whittaker doesn’t want it, so yeah, we’ll let him do it."
Victory for Adesanya would be UFC history. The Kiwi-Nigerian would become the first middleweight champion to hold the light-heavyweight title at the same time.
Adesanya would also join a short list of UFC stars to hold two belts in two different weight classes concurrently, alongside Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes, Henry Cejudo and Daniel Cormier.
The division was previously ruled by Jon Jones, who vacated the title earlier this year for a move up to heavyweight.
Adesanya's ambition to rule a new weight class is partly because he has cleaned out most of his division.
Last week, coach Eugene Bareman told Newshub that 'The Last Stylebender' wasn't motivated by a rematch with Robert Whittaker, whom he decisively beat for the title a year ago.
Whittaker easily dispatched American Jared Cannonier in Abu Dhabi last weekend, but that wasn't enough to sway their opinion.
"Israel has made it pretty clear to me, if Cannonier doesn't win, there's no-one else that interests him," Bareman said. "Certainly, the way the Whittaker fought last time, it doesn't interest him in the same way a Cannonier fight would have, so he wants to go up to 205 [lb division] and see what he can do up there.
"Now there's a pretty clear, distinct champion, it makes it a lot easier for Israel to set his goals and there are no top contenders that are working their way towards fighting a particular guy, because there hasn't been a guy."
"It may as well be the biggest name that Jan Blachowicz can get - and the biggest name that Jan Blachowicz can get is going to be Israel Adesanya."
White hasn't revealed a timeline or location for the match-up.
