Aliskerov is being thrown into deep waters against Whittaker, and Adesanya believes ‘Reaper’ will drown his opponent in the later rounds.
Israel Adesanya believes Robert Whittaker is going to come out of UFC Saudi Arabia victorious against his last-minute replacement opponent Ikram Aliskerov.
Whittaker was originally set to fight Khamzat Chimaev before an undisclosed illness knocked “Borz” off the card. In steps Aliskerov, who is being pushed as an equally nasty challenge. And hey, the guy is 15-1 and has finished both his UFC fights via first round knockout. But he’s never faced anyone on the level of “The Reaper,” and that makes the difference to Adesanya.
“This is a banger of a fight,” Izzy said in a breakdown of the June 22nd card. “It’s a big step up in competition though [for Aliskerov]. Rob is a former champion, still on the hunt, still dangerous. I’m picking Rob in this fight.”
“I think Robert is going to beat the brakes off this guy from round two onward. I think Rob gets past round one and starts to put it on this guy, and he’s going to feel a different beast. But who knows? We haven’t seen [Aliskerov] against competition like this yet. I just know how good Rob is so I’m gonna go Rob, probably in three or four [rounds] by TKO.”
Aliskerov’s sole defeat came against Khamzat Chimaev back in 2019. Interestingly enough, Ikram is the only opponent Khamzat wasn’t able to take down.
“What a good wrestler,” Adesanya said of the Dagestani fighter. “Do you think we’ll still get a good preview of what the [Khamzat] fight could have looked like? We’ll find out. Rob was ready to wrestle this fight anyway, so the rest is gonna be f—ing top tier in this fight, I think … But also this guy [Aliskerov], who’d he last beat? Warlley Alves. Big step up in competition against Rob.”
UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov kicks off at 12PM ET on Saturday June 22nd direct from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In addition to Whittaker vs. Aliskerov, the main card features Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov, Kelvin Gasteulum vs. Daniel Rodriguez, Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir, and the always exciting Shara “Bullet” Magomedov.
As for Israel Adesanya, his longer-than-usual break between fights is coming to an end. “The Last Stylebender” announced he’d be returning at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia against current middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis.