Robert Whittaker jokingly hopes both Adesanya & Pereira “hurt each other extremely”
Robert Whittaker hopes that the UFC 281 main event changes both fighters, making his own road back to the title much easier.
The former Middleweight champ, Robert Whittaker will be keeping a close eye on the upcoming UFC 281 main event. But it’s unlikely Whittaker will get a 3rd crack at Adesanya so soon, but despite that, he’s not rooting for one fighter over the other. Instead, he jokingly put it in a recent interview that he hopes both end up hurting each other badly.
“I hope they both hurt each other extremely. Like bad (laughs). I hope they never — I hope they fight so hard and they hurt each other so bad that they never come back the same.” (H/T MMA Fighting)
Robert Whittaker still believes he’s the best 185er on the planet
Despite losing two Israel Adesanya twice, Robert Whittaker is still confident in his abilities as he boldly claims to be the best Middleweight on the planet.
“I do believe I’m the best middleweight in the world, I just get countered by ‘Izzy’ so hard (laughs). I just feel like he’s my counter. I don’t fight well against him.”
Of course, the claim isn’t wholly accurate as Adesanya is the best 185er, but it’s clear that in the middleweight division, Whittaker and Adesanya have stood head and shoulders above others as Whittaker has beaten almost everyone not named Adesanya. And has done so easily, too.
This is why it’s interesting to see that Robert Whittaker isn’t favoring Alex Pereira in the upcoming title fight as that would make Whittaker’s path to the title much clearer. Instead, he will be another interested party wondering how the new glove sizes will impact this fight and who will show more evolution in their game.
“If they can land shots like they did in kickboxing in this fight coming up with the small gloves because the smaller gloves make the biggest difference. It impacts the entirety of the fight. How they engage, how wreckless they are moving forward, all of that. How that changes, what is that going to do to the fight itself? And next, who has evolved more? Who in their time away from each other since their last bout has evolved enough?”
