Midnight Mania! Usman Dismisses Whittaker, Romero’s Wrestling Abilities

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Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya is shaping up to be one of the biggest headlining fights of the year, a dream match up of masterful strikers to unify the Middleweight titles. As such, it was one of the topics Welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman discussed while making an appearance on Chael Sonnen’s YouTube show.

On the show, Usman was complimentary of both men’s striking skill, but his take on the wrestling of Whittaker was more interesting, as he was generally dismissive of Whittaker’s wrestling ability and the wrestling skill of his past opponents, which includes Yoel Romero — the Olympic silver medalist in Freestyle Wrestling.

Check out the transcription below (courtesy of TheBodyLockMMA.com):

“They don’t necessarily wrestle well. Not well, but I don’t think they possess the skills that you drill time and time again, years and years. Penetrating, lock up the double leg or single leg, run the pipe, get them down to the ground and control them. I think to beat a guy like Adesanya and a guy like Whittaker, you have to at some point, control them rather than let them dance around and set up their strikes and land something big, get you out of there potentially.”

Usman later adds that his pick for the bout would be Adesanya, despite Whittaker being “a great champion… a problem for anyone.” When Sonnen argued that Whittaker showed off his wrestling chops against Romero, Usman maintained that Whittaker has never “fought a wrestler that can potentially get a hold of him.”

Of all the fights to discount, Whittaker’s pair of “Fight of the Year”-winning bouts with Yoel Romero are an interesting choice, particularly since the first bout did feature a ton of high-level wrestling from both men. Perhaps another angle of Usman’s statements is that “The Nigerian Nightmare” is eyeing a future super fight with Whittaker — hardly impossible given UFC’s current love of double champs.

Before any of that, however, Usman must first at least deal with the mouthy Colby Covington and ideally a few other top Welterweights.

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.