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Current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight champion Robert Whittaker isn’t exactly known for his trash talk, as the Australian-born fighter is a quite and reserved as they come.
Inside the cage, however, he is anything but.
His upcoming opponent at UFC 243, however, is rather loquacious, as Israel Adesanya has been known to spew out some verbal fire from time-to-time, foe or not. And while things didn’t get too testy between the two men during a recent press conference to promote their upcoming title unification fight on October 6, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia (see it), Adesanya did have a few verbal jabs to throw at Whittaker.
And that’s just fine for “The Reaper,” who says he has no issue letting “The Last Stylebender” sell as many tickets as possible to fill up the 60,000 seat Marvel Stadium.
“To be honest, I am happy he’s doing what he’s doing because I find it entertaining and two, he sells the fight for us. And I am more than happy to let him do that, ‘Yeah, go out there and sell the tickets,’” joked Whittaker on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
While Whittaker won’t get lured into a trash talking contest, his opponents would be foolish to think his lack of chatter has anything to do with being intimidated.
“It’s the same thing all the time, everything I get in there to the press conferences and staredowns and square off, I’m not playing. This isn’t a game to me. There is a time for talk and a time for action,” he added.
“He knows I’m not playing. Whatever he says, whatever anybody else says, he knows I’m not playing. The people that know me, my fans, they know. I don’t play and this isn’t a game to me. I love what I do, fighting. This is my job.”
Winner of nine straight, Whittaker is looking for his first-ever title defense after winning the title back in 2017. That’s because his fight against Yoel Romero at UFC 225 was deemed a non-title affair after “Soldier of God” came in heavy.
As for Adesanya, he is looking to claim the official strap after win the interim belt earlier this year after edging out Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 in a highly-entertaining “Fight of the Night.”