{"id":189955,"date":"2025-10-04T18:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/189955\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T18:37:07","slug":"tyrone-spong-calls-israel-adesanya-most-successful-kickboxer-in-ufc-history-but-alex-pereira-should-be-proud-of-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/189955\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyrone Spong calls Israel Adesanya most successful kickboxer in UFC history but Alex Pereira \u2018should be proud of himself\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kickboxing legend Tyrone Spong<\/a> was close to joining the UFC<\/a> in the past, but he chose to make a name for himself in boxing instead. With a great resume in combat sports, the veteran striker names Israel Adesanya<\/a> the most successful kickboxer to ever enter the octagon.<\/p>\n

While discussing Alex Pereira<\/a>\u2019s impact in the sport in becoming a two-division champion in the UFC after doing the same in GLORY kickboxing, Spong initially said it would be fair to name \u201cPoatan\u201d and Mirko \u201cCro Cop\u201d Filipovic the most successful kickboxers in the promotion all-time, but then changed his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn MMA, it would be [Pereira], Mirko \u2018Cro Cop\u2019. Definitely in the UFC, for sure,\u201d Spong told MMA Fighting. \u201cOh no, no. Israel Adesanya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adesanya retired from kickboxing after losing to Pereira in March 2017 to fully focus on mixed martial arts, joining the UFC a year later to kick off a run of five straight victories, capped off by a decision over Anderson Silva<\/a>, to then claim the interim middleweight belt against Kelvin Gastelum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Last Stylebender\u201d unified titles against Robert Whittaker<\/a> and later defended it five times before losing to Pereira in November 2022, a fight he was dominating before suffering a knockout in the fifth round. Adesanya finally got his revenge against Pereira five months later, knocking him out in brutal fashion in Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael Adesanya [was the most successful],\u201d Spong said, \u201cHe was probably the blueprint and also inspiration whether I think \u2014 I don\u2019t know, but I think if you ask Alex that question, that Israel was an inspiration for him, because they have a history. And it probably gave him the confidence. Like, \u2018If that guy can do it, I should be able to do it as well\u2019. I would have to go with Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adesanya has yet to book his next fight in the promotion after losing three in a row to Sean Strickland<\/a>, Dricus Du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov<\/a>, the last two by stoppage. Meanwhile, Pereira will rematch Magomed Ankalaev<\/a>, the man that took his UFC light heavyweight belt back in March, for gold in the main event of UFC 320 on Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a hard fight,\u201d Spong said of a rematch between Ankalaev and Pereira. \u201cDifficult fight. Maybe not hard, but difficult for him because styles make fights. Everybody has a niche, something that just doesn\u2019t gel well with your style. And if he can change certain things he might be victorious.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I never bet, I never predict fights. They\u2019re both not guys that I train with because if I train with somebody, I\u2019m always going to back him. I wish them both the best, and may the best man win, but I can\u2019t predict the future. Let\u2019s see. That\u2019s what makes fighting interesting, right? It\u2019s the most honest art and sport in the world because two guys go in there and then they fight hard and honest, and the best man on the evening wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome of a rematch with Ankalaev, Spong feels that Pereira should be proud of the history he\u2019s built in combat sports after a life of out-of-the-cage struggles and adversities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he did a phenomenal job,\u201d Spong said. \u201cNot for nothing, he\u2019s a big star now, has a lot of success in his fights, accomplished so much in a short space of time. And more than anything, his story is good, too, the stuff he overcame<\/a>. I think he should be proud of himself. He probably never thought in his in his head that this was possible, and he went out and did it. I respect that a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you know, from a competitive side, of course, I\u2019m being labeled one of the best kickboxers from the past two decades \u2014 not one decade, the past two decades, that\u2019s how long I\u2019ve been around. I know that me as a fighter I can beat certain people, but I\u2019m proud of him and I wish him all the best and success. I think he did great for him, his sons, to be an example. And for other people that have certain problems in life like addiction and whatnot, I think he should be proud of what he accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kickboxing legend Tyrone Spong was close to joining the UFC in the past, but he chose to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-189955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}