Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker spoke out via MMA on Sirius XM about his biggest in-cage rival. ‘The Reaper’ did a deep dive into Israel Adesanya’s trash-talking abilities and the possible role it played in their fight. The aforementioned elite middleweights competed against each other at UFC 243 for what was Whittaker’s undisputed title at the time.

Israel Adesanya soundly defeated Robert Whittaker in their battle and virtually knocked out the champion twice. The first blow came at the buzzer of the first round and the finishing blow was delivered once the second round was underway. ‘Izzy’s stardom has just continued to grow since then and ‘The Reaper’ is keen to run things back.

‘Bobby Knuckles’ acknowledged the fact that Adesanya’s trash-talking certainly had its place in magnifying his stress level for the fight. The Nigerian born fighter is a prolific speaker on the mic and quickly shreds through his opponent.

Whittaker said, “I think it was just one more thing that piled on top. Like one more thing, we threw on top of the pile of an already huge clutter mess of what was going on in my head. Certainly, that side of it, as well as the hype and the build-up and the attention me and him were receiving in Australia cause the fight was taking place down here. The size of the event, the size of the venue, was a massive thing. It just blew everything up to big proportions.”

“I’m certain it did play a factor, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t but I think it was just the cherry on top, not so much the driving factor.”

Robert Whittaker says he could have beaten Adesanya in a word battle

Robert Whittaker drew parallels between a UFC press conference and a political debate between aspiring candidates. However, this back and forth with his opponents didn’t encapsulate what he viewed as part of the sport.

He continued, “There was a point when I was preparing for a fight with Izzy the first time… we were going for a press conference there and a press conference there. It hit me all of a sudden like this is like a political battle like, we are just going to different venues throwing out our opinions trying to sway a crowd… I hated that.”

“It wasn’t the sport, it was just silly. If the word battle was the game, I’m pretty sure I could have defeated Izzy in some of that, but that’s not the game.”

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Robert Whittaker has managed to earn a rematch against Adesanya after picking up two straight wins. He’s fresh off a win over Jared Cannonier at UFC 254 and will be looking to get back his undisputed strap. Chiefly, Israel Adesanya’s move-up to fight 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz has muddied the waters for Robert.