Israel Adesanya congratulates UFC debut opponent Rob Wilkinson on PFL victory

Israel Adesanya congratulated his former opponent Rob Wilkinson following the former UFC fighter's Professional Fighters League championship victory.

Wilkinson capped off his fourth straight victory in the Professional Fighters League by securing the light heavyweight championship. He won the 2022 finale against Omari Akhmedov in just two rounds after a savage display of kickboxing and boxing.

Adesanya took to Instagram to post a story celebrating his former foe's success. He wrote:

"I love these moments! S/O to @razorrobwilkinson"

Rob Wilkinson reposted Israel Adesanya's story as a gesture of acknowledgment and an indication that there are no hard feelings between the two.

Check out the screenshot of his story below:

Israel Adesanya congratulates Rob Wilkinson on his Instagram story. [via Instagram @stylebender]

Adesanya and Wilkinson faced off way back in 2018 at UFC 221 in what was the former middleweight champion's UFC debut. 'Izzy' won the exchange by knocking 'Razor' out in the second round and winning a Performance of the Night bonus.

The loss proved to be Wilkinson's second loss on the trot in the UFC and the end of his brief stint at the promotion. However, the two defeats remain the only losses on his current 17-2 mixed martial arts record. Wilkinson has come a long way since then and also redeemed himself at the PFL Championships, winning a $1 million check for his win.

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Israel Adesanya vows to make title rematch with Alex Pereira a "bloodbath"

Israel Adesanya lost his first-ever middleweight bout against Alex Pereira and subsequently lost his UFC title too.

In the first YouTube video he uploaded to his channel since the UFC 281 defeat, 'The Last Stylebender' addressed a potential rematch with 'Poatan' and made brutal affirmations of his intention to avenge his losses.

“I’m excited for this chapter. I like the way the story goes. I made him bloody I made him bleed. If you can make him bleed, you can kill him. This one, I want to make it a bloodbath like I get up and it’s just red from elbows and just beating him lumpy."

Adesanya also credited Pereira for beating him but reasoned that he was close enough to warrant a rematch.

"Only the first one’s the asterisk, last two he beat me. But I was beating him, I was on my way to beating him. There’s that story there. This time, if I just beat him from bell to bell, 30 minute a** whooping, finish him somewhere in between, all those three don’t matter. He who has the last laugh laughs best."

Watch the full video uploaded to his channel FREESTYLEBENDER on YouTube: