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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Harry Davies

UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alex Volkanovski become official Prime athletes

UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski have became the first two fighters in the organisation to be officially sponsored by Prime.

The popular hydration drink, which is owned by YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI, became an official sponsor of the UFC in February. Prime's branding can be seen on the corner stool that UFC fighters sit on in between rounds and the official scale they step on to weigh-in before a fight.

Middleweight champion Adesanya and featherweight king Volkanovski are now officially sponsored by Prime as Paul announced the news on his Instagram account. The promo clip shows highlights of Adesanya and Volkanovski's fights before it cuts into the pair drinking from a Prime bottle with their UFC titles around their shoulders.

Bottles of Prime flew off the shelves in UK supermarkets upon its release and the drink has since become a sponsor of Arsenal FC as well as NASCAR in the US. One fighter who took notice of Adesanya and Volkanovski becoming Prime athletes was UFC welterweight Joaquin Buckley, who called for Paul to sponsor him to the hydration drink.

What are your thoughts on Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volanovski becoming Prime athletes? Let us know in the comments section below

Buckley knocked out Andre Fialho in his last fight and said in his post-fight interview: "Logan Paul! You got this Prime s*** all over the place, sponsor an athlete from the UFC fool! Come on bruh, get your boy 'New Mansa' in the building. Come on, let's get it." Paul used the clip of Buckley calling him out whilst announcing the signings of Adesanya and Volkanovski, something the UFC star caught onto.

"Look who Prime just signed as an official athlete, you've got Israel Adesanya and Alex Volkanovski. This is historic and I feel like for real, you guys have got to give me my props. If I didn't shout out Logan Paul about not sponsoring athletes in the UFC when his Prime drinks are everywhere, it didn't make any sense to me.

"Now that he has sponsored two UFC athletes, not just athletes but champions, I feel like this deal is going to spark something brand new. I feel like I have something to do with it and congratulations to Adesanya and Volkanovski."

Adesanya is expected to defend his middleweight belt against the winner of Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis' fight at UFC 290 in July. Volkanovski will serve as the main event of that card as he defends his featherweight crown against interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez.

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