Interim UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is all set to fight UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is what is described as the biggest fight in Australia’s history.
This will be Whittaker’s first fight in nearly 16 months. He last stepped inside the Octagon against Yoel Romero at UFC 225 in June of 2018 and defeated him via unanimous decision. He was earlier scheduled to fight Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 234 which was scheduled to take place in Australia, but he had to pull out of the fight because of a hernia and he had to undergo a surgery.
Before that, he pulled out of his fight against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221. So there are concerns as to if he is totally healthy ahead of his big fight against Adesanya.
Speaking to the media during the open workouts at UFC 243, Whittaker said that he is in the best shape he has ever been.
“I’m yoked right now!”
“This is the most I have trained outside of a fight like I have been so consistent, I have had such a strong strong prep, you know hats off to Justin Lang, he just sculpted me into this monster right now,” Whittaker said.
Even though Whittaker has been out of the cage for so long, he has been taking part in Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu competitions and he explained if it is helpful to keep his competitive spirits motivated.
“Super important, when you compete there’s a different level of intensity, there’s the adrenaline dump and even more so in the smaller competition because coming to a Jiu-Jitsu comp or a wrestling comp…I come into it as a Champ as the middleweight champ and everyone wants to kill me and everybody expects me to win,” Whittaker concluded.
Who do you guys think wins the middleweight fight between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker?
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