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Nigeria’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya (The Last Style Bender) is psyching himself up with defiant memories, ahead of his latest tilt defence this Saturday against Robert Whittaker in Houston, Texas, USA.
With just few days separating him from a historic second bout with the Australian fighter, New Zealand-based Adesanya took a look back at his only defeat so far in The Octagon and declared emphatically that it was a fight he should have won.
Megasportsarena.com reports that the defeat came for Adesanya when he stepped up in weight in an attempt to snatch Jan Blachowicz’s belt and, though he failed in that daring bid, he insists he was not was threatened during that fight.
The middleweight champion (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) failed in his bid to become a double belt when he lost a unanimous decision to the then-light heavyweight titleholder at UFC 259, in what became his first-career loss.
‘The Last Style Bender’ stressed that he does not think Whittaker (23-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) will be able to implement a similar game plan when the pair rematches in Saturday’s UFC 271 main event.
His comments stemmed from Whittaker’s claim that Blachowicz set the blueprint to beat him, but the Nigerian fighter remains defiant, despite agreeing with the judges’ decision, and posited that he had more impactful moments.
Adesanya said in an interview with ESPN: “If that’s what he wants to do to try and win the fight, try. If he’s 225 pounds, but try – and he’s never felt me grapple.
“Everyone that’s felt me grapple, they know I’ve got that strength. But once they feel it, it’s different because of the frame.
“They look at me and think, ‘Oh, skinny boy, no power.’ But they find out. Where in that fight did I actually get hurt? I mean, he beat me, you know – guaranteed.
“I know some people don’t agree, but I think he beat me just. But where in that fight did I actually get hurt? I never felt in danger once in that fight.
“He was in danger because I rocked him. He even admitted it and he felt my power. But where in that fight was that actually hurt? I never felt in danger once.”
However, UFC expert analyst and pundit, Eugene Bareman opined that he does not think that Adesanya should top his first win over Whittaker with another triumphant finish.
Adesanya (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) had a flawless performance against Whittaker (23-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) at UFC 243 and knocked him out in the second round to unify the middleweight titles in 2019.
‘The Last Style Bender’ added that he is planning on putting on an even better performance when the pair runs things back in the UFC 271 main event Saturday, but his head coach would like to see things pan out in a specific way.
In his most recent title defense against Marvin Vettori at UFC 263 in June 2021, Adesanya dominated the Italian with a much more definitive performance than their first outing in 2018, which he won by split decision.
Since he lost the belt to Adesanya, Whittaker has looked more solid than ever with three big wins against top middleweight contenders.
In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Whittaker alluded to mixing things up with his grappling this time, in which he may look to mimic some of Blachowicz’s tactics when he bounced Adesanya out of the ranks of the unbeaten in their light heavyweight title bout at UFC 259.
Bareman, though, does not expect Whittaker to follow Blachowicz’s blueprint and he told Submission Radio: “People aren’t going to agree with me, but the ultimate thing you can do in fight sports, I think, is not a knockout.
“It’s a whitewash. And so what I would like to happen is just a five-round whitewash where there is no stoppage this time.
“But like, every round, there’s just accumulative, accumulative, accumulative damage and it just leaves no doubt.
“It just leaves no doubt. There’s 25 minutes of mastery. They have a very smart team, these guys.
“I studied them extensively for the first fight and I quickly figured out that they’re an elite team. They’re a very smart team. They know they can’t transpose what Jan did to Israel.
“There’s little things you could take, but at the end of the day you’ve got to work with the athlete that you’ve got in front of you, and they understand that they don’t have Jan in front of them, so they’re too smart to do that.
“But I expect a little bit less panic and a little bit more respect from Rob. I expect him to not be so aggressive this time. That’s the only thing I can take a good calculated guess at.”
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