Israel Adesanya is preparing for war at UFC 271. The UFC middleweight champion will take on the former king of the division, Robert Whittaker, in the main event on February 12, 2022. In the build-up to the fight, Adesanya talked about his opponent.

Whittaker is known as a nice guy around the MMA community, but the champion disagrees. ‘The Last Stylebender’ told Brett Okamoto that ‘The Reaper’ was acting out of character leading up to their last fight.

He said, “At least he admitted what I already said in the last fight. Leading up to the last fight, I said, this guy is acting out of character. And everyone’s just like Izzy’s so triggered, he’s so triggered by this meme. I’m like, no, I’m just calling things as I see it. He’s acting out of character. Why is he doing that? I haven’t even said anything, and he just puts out this stupid meme.”

Adesanya also doesn’t believe the narrative of Whittaker being a good guy. He said, “Then the way he was behaving. Behind the scenes and in front of the camera, but a lot of people were like, how could you hate Robert? He’s such a good guy and this and that. I’m like, no, he’s not… There’s things I know about the guy that’s not for the cameras to know.”

ALSO READ – Four UFC Fighters Who Suffer From CTE

‘The Last Stylebender’ has been unstoppable as the champion, which he became by dethroning Whittaker at UFC 243. He has defended his title three times since then and hasn’t been bothered at all.

‘The Reaper,’ however, is coming in looking for vengeance. Since the loss, he has won his next three fights (against Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, and Kelvin Gastelum).

Eugene Bareman doesn’t think Israel Adesanya should stop Robert Whittaker

‘The Last Stylebender‘ totally toyed with Robert Whittaker at UFC 243. He found his range quickly and was easily fending off his opponent’s shots. ‘The Reaper’ got dropped at the end of the first round, but was saved as the round ended. However, Adesanya came out with the same intensity in the second round and knocked ‘Bobby Knuckles’ out.

He put on a clinic in the first fight, but his coach wants the second fight to go a certain way. In an interview, Bareman said, “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.”

WATCH THIS STORY – UFC 271: Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker 2 Stats: Record, Height, Reach, and More

Adesanya, in his last fight, put in a dominant performance against Marvin Vettori. He completely controlled the fight and won via decision. Now, ‘The Last Stylebender’ will look to shut his naysayers down at UFC 271 and prove that his first win wasn’t a fluke.