Former Bellator Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi recently spoke with Bret Okamoto regarding yet another fantasy Bellator-UFC crossover fight.

In the latter half of the interview, Ariel asked Mousasi about a hypothetical fight with Israel Adesanya. He replied,

“I think I’ll match up very well. He’s a stand-up guy. I can fight him [at] stand-up. But he [also has] good wrestling. When he came, I thought he had no wrestling. But, he impressed me with his takedown defense and his ground game. I didn’t know he was that good. So, yeah, deserving champion.”

Great words of praise coming Adesanya’s way from one of the most respectable Middleweight MMA fighters currently active. And a brief yet on-point deduction of The Last Stylebender‘s skill-set too.

While Adesanya prefers to fight the exciting stand-up fight, he himself claims that his ground game is just as good.  Factually, too, this claim of his goes unhindered. Adesanya has defended 85% of the takedowns attempted at him, rendering him a master of takedown defense.

Moreover, he constantly works towards improving his game, thus always leaving space for improving wrestling. A good example of this is when he caught Kevin Gastelum in a triangle choke.

Will Gegard Mousasi really prove to be a tight match for Israel Adesanya?

While Israel Adesanya is a beast in himself, Gegard Mousasi is not a person to be taken lightly.

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The 34-year-old is much more experienced in the world of MMA, with a fight record of 46-7-2. his stand-up game consists of ferocious precision-strikes, including powerful punches and devastating kicks.

Thus, in the stand-up department, “The American Assassin” will prove to be a tough fight for Adesanya. Similarly, both Adesanya and Gegard execute vicious ground-and-pounds when their opponents lie on the canvas.

However, while Gegard doesn’t shy away from a ground-game, he might lack the skills he houses in ground-game as compared to Adesanya.

A very recent example being the loss of his Bellator Middleweight title to Rafael Lovato Jr. While he dominated the action, Lovato was able to keep Gegard on the ground, attempting numerous submission holds for the majority of the championship round.

Although, a ground-game is most likely to be unseen in a hypothetical bout between the two, as both prefer the stand-up game.

Who do you think will win if a super fight between the two does take place?