Israel Adesanya Unsure If Robert Whittaker Will Make It To Fight Night

Things are looking good for an eventual clash between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.

The pair are expected to unify their UFC middleweight titles at the recently announced UFC 243 pay-per-view (PPV) in Melbourne, Australia. However, “Stylebender” is unsure whether or not Whittaker will show up given his injury history. Speaking to Submission Radio recently, Adesanya said he wouldn’t be surprised to see betting lines on if “Bobby Knuckles” will pull out of the bout:

“You can’t judge that last fight and say – I mean, you can take whatever, you can say, he gets hit a lot. Cool. That’s what you get from that fight. People are gonna say Kelvin’s got a hard chin, Kelvin’s so tough. I’m like, Ni**a, I don’t like to brag, but I looked like a f*cking potato after that fight, I took some shots. But not once did my ass hit the ground. Kelvin’s ass hit the ground like five or six times, even seven. So, I mean, you could say whatever you want, I just stay calm composed. And I’ve been through a lot of adversity. The way we train is different.

“We push to the breaking point, but we’re smart about it. That’s why we don’t get hurt and pull out of every single fight. I’m going to put a wager out there and see if he makes it to the fight. Cause for me, I’m keeping that same energy with the way I train. If he is… is he gonna make it to the fight? So, I’m prepared for him, but I don’t know if he’s gonna make it to the fight. That’s just history. They should put a wager on ‘will Robert make it to this fight? Will he pull out of this fight?’ and put odds on that based on all his other fights. That should be a new wager that gets added to the odds.”

Adesanya captured middleweight gold back in April when he defeated Kelvin Gastelum for the interim 185-pound throne. Now, the pair of New Zealanders will face off “Down Under” in what has the potential to be, undoubtedly, the biggest fight the continent has ever seen.