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Robert Whittaker has suggested that he felt validated by Jan Blachowicz’s win over Israel Adesanya.
The Reaper and the Last Stylebender have a long history. At UFC 243 back in October 2019, the then-UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker fought the then-interim UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Robert Whittaker was stopped by Israel Adesanya via second-round KO, with Adesanya thereby unifying the UFC middleweight titles and becoming the undisputed UFC middleweight champion.
Israel Adesanya was undefeated in his professional MMA career until his most recent fight. Adesanya last competed in a champion vs champion super-fight, moving up to the light heavyweight division to challenge the division’s champion Jan Blachowicz for his title at UFC 259 (March 2021).
Jan Blachowicz defeated Israel Adesanya via unanimous decision. Blachowicz mixed up his striking and grappling to stifle Izzy’s offense and thoroughly out-wrestled the latter towards the end of the fight.
Robert Whittaker recently gave an interview to ESPN MMA. When asked whether he watched Israel Adesanya fight Jan Blachowicz, he stated –
“I did. I thought Israel would be able to control it more. But Jan fought so well."
"His patient strategy and obviously his Polish power was just a real threat. And you could see Izzy was having trouble trying to lead the fight where he wanted to. So, then with the takedowns on the back and just sealing the deal; it was a great fight, very smart fight from Jan. That’s why he’s the champ.”
Additionally, he was asked if he felt Israel Adesanya made any mistakes in the fight.
Robert Whittaker replied, “Hard to say; very hard to say. And hindsight is, you know, remarkable, isn’t it?”
Another interesting question asked was who would win between Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz if those two were to hypothetically face off 50 times."
Whitaker replied by explaining, “You know, if you would ask me this before they fought, I would say Izzy would win more times than not."
"But after seeing Jan adjust – and this is before they fought – and also being able to handle that strike and being able to handle those shots, being able to make Izzy cautious and wary of his own. I think Jan would have to be the favorite moving forward.”
Furthermore, Robert Whittaker stated, “Well, you see, it just confirmed a lot of my theories for, you know, a solid strategy to fighting Izzy – which would be to try and wrestle him once he gets tired in the later rounds.”
“Not the early rounds – because you’ll gas and get hurt – because you need to be sharp with him. He’s got very effective striking. But patience is very important in fighting him because he is such a good counter-striker."
"The problem with that is though he’s very good at outside fighting. So, you can’t be too patient otherwise, he picks you apart and beats you on points. You know, it’s a trick. That’s the game. That’s why it’s fun.”
In a nutshell, Robert Whittaker insinuated that even though the fight does make him feel validated, defeating Israel Adesanya would still be a tricky proposition.
Robert Whittaker is on the cusp of earning a UFC middleweight title shot
Presently, Robert Whittaker is scheduled to fight Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Vegas 24 (April 17th, 2021). Whittaker was initially set to fight Paulo Costa at the event. However, Costa withdrew from the fight due to a severe flu and was replaced by Gastelum.
The belief is that should Robert Whittaker manage to defeat Kelvin Gastelum in their upcoming fight, Whittaker is likely to receive the next shot at the UFC middleweight title. The title is currently being held by Israel Adesanya. Hence, this would also accord Whittaker the opportunity to avenge his 2019 loss to Adesanya.
