Israel Adesanya will '100 per cent' fight in Africa with Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is 100 per cent sure he'll fight in Africa before he retires from mixed martial arts.   

In the last three years, Adesanya, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman have been crowned the first African champions in UFC history, sparking a surge of interest in MMA across the continent. 

Ngannou, 35, spoke about his dream of competing ahead of his UFC 270 title defence against Ciryl Gane last month, a vision which Adesanya shares with the Cameroonian.

With Adesanya the middleweight champion, Ngannou the heavyweight titleholder and Usman the welterweight champ, the Last Stylebender thinks it's only a matter of time before the trio finally get what they have wanted all along. 

The Stake ambassador told the official website: "The Africa dream is 100% live.

"What myself, Kamaru and Francis are doing right now is history.

"There has got to be a way of cementing that for us and our people.

"A card on the great continent of Africa will be the one, so by hook or by crook we will make that happen.

"The UFC have known about it for a while and it will happen one day, but things need to align properly and we don't want to rush history.

"It's one of my main goals as a person and a professional fighter.

"But it's bigger than me, or Francis or Kamaru, it's history for an entire continent.

"So before the curtain calls for me, I want to say 'I did that', it would be beautiful."

Adesanya, 32, will defend his UFC middleweight title with a rematch against New Zealand-born Australian Robert Whittaker next weekend. 

The decorated kickboxer began his reign in 2019 by knocking out Whittaker in Melbourne. 

He continued: "My prediction is that I am going to f--- Whittaker up, again.

"He can't stand with me, so I