“That is my motivation for this fight, to get up and beat him again in an even more devastating fashion.”
Israel Adesanya plans to put another beating on Robert Whittaker in their rematch at UFC 271, telling Stake that he is motivated to finish ‘The Reaper’ in ‘an even more devastating fashion’ than their first fight.
“I don’t know about another death note the second time around,” Adesanya, the reigning UFC middleweight champ, said. “Those things come to me whenever they come to me. But let me tell you, I never get complacent, this makes me fired up. It’s another easy bag, so I cannot afford to fumble this bag. For me, I’ve done the work. This is one of the best camps I have had, and I still have hard training to go. Just being present and having fun is important. I look forward to the work in this one, I look forward to coming at him.”
“There has been no cutting corners this time,” he added. “It’s made me even more motivated to do it again and do it more decisively if that’s even possible. That is my motivation for this fight, to get up and beat him again in an even more devastating fashion.”
Adesanya put on a striking masterclass against Whittaker in their first matchup at UFC 243, finishing the latter via second-round KO, and ‘The Last Stylebender’ plans to ‘f-ck Whittaker up again’ in the rematch and add yet another highlight-reel finish to his resume.
“My prediction is that I am going to f*ck (Robert) Whittaker up, again,” he said. “He can’t stand with me, so I know he will be forced to grapple. Last time he said, ‘Kevin Gastelum has been given the blueprint on how to beat Adesanya’ and now he’s saying, ‘Jan (Blachowicz) has given the blueprint’. … he needs to write his own blueprint. If he wants to copy someone else’s work, then, by all means, try, because it went so well last time for him when we fought.”
Whittaker rebounded from the Adesanya loss with three straight victories to propel himself into title contention, while Adesanya went on to defend his title against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa, and Marvin Vettori to cement his legacy as the best middleweight champion since Anderson Silva and land a spot in the top-three UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.
UFC 271: Adesanya vs. Whittaker II takes place this month, Feb. 12 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.