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Israel Adesanya isn’t lacking confidence heading into his title unification bout against Robert Whittaker. To the extent that he doesn’t think the ‘Reaper’ knowing his gameplan, or potentially training with the light heavyweight champ will help him.
Israel Adesanya has a fight to sell. The interim middleweight champion is getting ready for his bout against title holder Robert Whittaker in Melbourne, Australia on October 6th, where the two belts will hopefully be unified. Whittaker, known as much for his low profile out of the cage as his violence inside of it, will be fighting for the first time in 2019, having suffered a series of unusual injuries—including a twisted and collapsed bowel, and an abdominal hernia.
With an opponent of few words in front of him, it looks like Adesanya is happy to take on the brunt of the promotional work, letting his confidence shine in a recent interview with Submission Radio. As far as he’s concerned, Whittaker can do all the preparation he wants. Come October, he’s still going to lose.
“Let him,” Adesanya exclaimed, when asked about Jon Jones’ offer to help prep Whittaker for the ‘Last Stylebender.’ “F-ck, this is what I mean. Get f-cking ISIS. Bring whoever has to help you get ready for this fight, cause they can’t save you. No one can save you.”
“If he thinks Jon Jones is gonna help him—look at Jon Jones’ striking. Don’t even insult me. Come on, man. Wrestling, yes. Get Jon Jones to help you with your wrestling.
“F-cking, Rob, shoot on me,” he continued. “Please, come on. No one’s got me down and kept me down. You’ve done it to Romero, you might be the one. I advise him to shoot on me. Try to keep me down. If not, strike with me. Do your little one-one, two, and then throw your right high kick. Do your little oblique kick. F-cking hell. What else? He’s good with the left hook, and that’s one thing, no one’s ever… ah f-ck it, no one ever makes him check the left hook. No one ever makes him check. I’ll give him the blueprint and I’ll still whoop his ass. No one ever makes him respect the left hook like that. No one ever makes him hesitate with the left hook. F-cking hell. Just, I advise him to shoot. I won’t Jorge Masvidal him, but I advise him to shoot. Straight up shoot, then wrestle f-ck me.”
And while he’s clearly working to get fans engaged in their upcoming PPV, Adesanya admitted that he’s not all that interested in the idea of getting under Whittaker’s skin. As far as he’s concerned, he’s just stating facts.
“I’m not trying to get under his skin,’ Adesanya said. “That’s another narrative that’s false. I’m not trying to get under his skin, I’m just stating facts. I’m just stating facts. And he’s backtracked in person, ‘I’m sorry.’ Well, don’t be sorry, just make better memes at least so they can be funny. But yeah, the only thing I saw when I stared him down, like, no one else knows – everyone else just looks from the outside in – but you’re not standing in front of him, looking in his eyes. And I said it, I’ve seen it, he’s not a guy that’s scared. I’m not a guy that’s scared. Yeah, he means business, and so do I. If he doesn’t want to sell the fight, cool, don’t sell the fight. The fight’s already sold itself. I just happen to talk a lot, and I just happen to fucking have bars to sell the fight. So yeah, you’re welcome. You’re welcome.”
“Nah, Rob’s not the kind of guy that I don’t think… like I said, he’s a mute, he’s a bit of a knuckle-dragger. He’s a throwback, just meats and potatoes, ‘Oh, I do my talking in the cage’. You know that line? ‘I do my talking in the cage’ . And so do I, I’m multifaceted. I don’t think, if you get in his head or not, I don’t think it makes a difference. At the end of the day, skills pays the bills. I mean, check my resume. Come on, man, check my resume. You see the skills are heavily there.”
UFC 243 is set to take place at the newly constructed 60,000 seat Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. The card is expected to be headlined by the middleweight title unification bout between Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya. An official co-main event has yet to be named.