Israel Adesanya is not worried about Robert Whittaker’s game plan.
Israel Adesanya is preparing for a rematch with Robert Whittaker as the main event of the upcoming UFC 271 card. Adesanya holds a win over Whittaker from the first time these two met back in 2019. Now that Whittaker is finally getting his chance at revenge, Adesanya is urging him to come up with a new plan without trying to copy others’ homework.
“My prediction is that I am going to f*ck Whittaker up, again,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. “He can’t stand with me, so I know he will be forced to grapple. Last time he said Kevin Gastelum has given the blueprint on how to beat Adesanya,’ and now he’s saying ‘Jan 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.
Adesanya has never been defeated in the middleweight division throughout his MMA career. He did, however, suffer a loss when he decided to try his hand at light heavyweight against Jan Blachowicz. Adesanya does not feel Whittaker can take anything from that bout with Blachowicz and believes that he still has what it takes to beat “The Reaper.”
“Whittaker may have learned from his mistakes from last time for maybe a round or so, but then trust me, he will revert back to those errors,” he said. “Once he feels what he felt last time, he won’t know where to turn. Also, he didn’t even grapple with me last time, he didn’t really feel me. You can ask any of my previous opponents, they will tell you. So once he feels me in a grapple, then he will get shook again.”
Grappling may come into play during this fight as Adesanya predicted, but it would be a change for Whittaker. In his first eight professional fights, Whittaker finished six of them by way of submission. Since then, he has not claimed one submission victory. Also of note, Adesanya has never finished on the ground and instead holds 15 KO/TKO victories in his career.
Do you think Robert Whittaker can take Adesanya down and win this fight at UFC 271?
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