Israel Adesanya Expects To Pick Robert Whittaker Apart ‘Easily’
Israel Adesanya plans on becoming the undisputed middleweight champion. And he expects to come away with the win fairly comfortably.
Adesanya will meet Robert Whittaker in a middleweight title unification clash in the main event of UFC 243 which takes place October 5 in Melbourne, Australia. “The Last Stylebender” is undefeated and is coming off an impressive performance against Kelvin Gastelum where he won the interim belt.
However, Whittaker has not tasted defeat since 2014 and holds notable victories over Yoel Romero (twice) and Ronaldo Souza. Despite that, Adesanya feels he will pick “The Reaper” out pretty easily:
“He’s a guy I can pick apart easily,” Adesanya told reporters on Wednesday’s UFC 243 conference call (via MMA Junkie). “A challenge I haven’t faced before? I don’t think so. He just does what he does very well. There’s only a certain amount of awkwardness that he has that I haven’t seen before, but he can try to prove me wrong. From what I see, though, I’ll pick him apart quite easily.
“I have these attributes that I use very well, and I think what his camp might look at the last fight and think when Kelvin was able to get close. That was just an error at our part and a good game plan on their part. But we’ve taken care of those errors. I’m going to be able to use my height and reach like I always have.”
Despite being promoted to middleweight champion in 2017, Whittaker hasn’t had an official title defense yet. Part of that is because of Romero missing weight in their second fight last year. The other reason is because of injuries causing Whittaker to pull out of two title bouts.
Adesanya, on the other hand, plans on becoming an active champion after defeating Whittaker:
“As a champion, I’ll be a lot more active as a champion than he’s been, and I’ll be a lot more active,” Adesanya added. “Maybe not at the beginning because of timing and everything else, but I’ll be an active champion.”
What do you think of Adesanya’s comments? Do you think he can beat Whittaker with ease?
