Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker have been the two dominant forces at middleweight over the last three years. They fought once, with Adesanya claiming a T/KO win over ‘The Reaper’ at UFC 243. Subsequently, both men have only won their fights and cleared the division.
After his win over Marvin Vettori at UFC 263, Adesanya called out Robert Whittaker for a rematch. The champion stated that he would like the fight to take place in New Zealand. However, due to the travel restrictions imposed by both New Zealand and Australia, the UFC could not set up the rematch in either of those two countries.
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Now, the UFC has confirmed that the two men will headline UFC 271 that is set to take place in Houston. While speaking on the long road to get to a rematch, Whittaker said, “I’ve been enjoying the process, training hard, getting wins under my belt and, yeah, it’s not something I paid much attention to, to be honest. I’ve just been doing my thing.”
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‘The Reaper’ also shared his thoughts on the fight taking place in Houston, saying, “A big thing is, because I can’t control where I go, a big part of my approach to it is just being grateful for the little things. So, if it’s in Houston, whilst it’s a far leg away and I have to leave my family for a little bit, but I’ve never been to Houston, so that should be fun.”
Did Jan Blachowicz expose a weakness that Robert Whittaker can capitalize on against Israel Adesanya?
‘The Last Stylebender’ took on Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight belt with an aim of becoming a two-division world champion. However, Blachowicz exposed a gaping hole in Adesanya’s game with his wrestling and his control on the ground, which ultimately won him the fight.
Whittaker relied on his wrestling in his recent fight against Gastelum to secure an impressive unanimous decision win. Hence, the common consensus going into the fight is that Whittaker might try to emulate what Blachowicz did. However, Blachowicz did have a sizeable weight and size advantage over the champion, which Whittaker might not have.
Who do you think takes the win in the Robert Whittaker vs Israel Adesanya rematch at UFC 271? Let us know in the comments below!
