Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, is the winner of nine straight, which includes victories over some of the top names in the division, like Yoel Romero (twice) and Ronaldo Souza.
That streak was good enough to land him a spot in the Top 10 of the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings and now his jiu-jitsu coach, Alex Prates, believes “The Reaper” can be compared to former welterweight deity, Georges St-Pierre.
Only better.
“Maybe you’ll see Robert Whittaker using a style that I think is the one that suits him better but he never really needed it because it was always comfortable for him on the feet for most of his fights,” Prates told MMA Fighting. “With Yoel Romero, for example, it would have been stupid to try to take him down. But Robert has great wrestling and great timing. I honestly think Robert is a better version of GSP. And we might see this now.”
St-Pierre vacated his middleweight title before we could find out.
The champ will undoubtedly need a combination of great wrestling and great timing when he battles striking wunderkind, Israel Adesanya, in the upcoming UFC 243 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, scheduled for Sat., Oct. 5, 2019 inside Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
The 20-4 “Reaper” has competed just once over the last two years after struggling with injuries and medical setbacks, which led to the creation of an interim title. Adesanya (17-0) won the substitute strap by turning away Kelvin Gastelum back in April.
Perhaps a knockout win for “The Last Stylebender” make him like Anderson Silva, only better.