Chael Sonnen explains why Robert Whittaker has "grown leaps and bounds" but Israel Adesanya has not

Chael Sonnen expects tremendous improvement from Robert Whittaker but not from Israel Adesanya heading into UFC 271.

According to 'The American Gangster', Whittaker is far superior to the version of himself that fought Adesanya for the first time. During an episode of his YouTube show, Sonnen argued:

"If you want to juxtapose Robert Whittaker of today vs. the Whittaker that fought Adesanya for the first time, against Adesanya that faced Whittaker the first time, they're not even close. Whittaker has grown leaps and bounds, Adesanya has not. I will go as far as to tell you Whittaker is not the same fighter anymore."

The retired UFC fighter then pointed to Whittaker's most recent outing as evidence of his claim. The 44-year-old added:

"And I will use as an example to that statement, Whittaker rounds one through five against Kelvin Gastelum. Robert Whittaker has never attempted a takedown. He had never gotten a takedown which meant there was no ground-and-pound, there was no groundwork whatsoever in his entire career. He goes for four takedowns against Kelvin, he gets all four and he kept them there."

Check out Chael Sonnen's comments on Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2:

It’s been more than two years since Whittaker dropped the belt to Israel Adesanya in October of 2019. 'The Reaper' has since clawed his way back into the title picture with three consecutive unanimous decision wins over Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum.

Meanwhile, Adesanya remains unbeaten in the 185-pound division. He has three title defenses against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori. The Kiwi suffered the first loss of his professional MMA career in March last year when he came up short against then-light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.

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Israel Adesanya downplays Robert Whittaker's improvements

The advancement in Robert Whittaker's game is one of the biggest talking points heading into this month's UFC 271 pay-per-view. However, reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya doesn't appear to be too impressed with his rival's progress.

In an interview uploaded to his YouTube channel, 'The Last Stylebender' gave his thoughts on Whittaker’s latest string of victories. Asked if 'The Reaper' was getting too much credit for recent success, Adesanya said:

"Yes. Way too much. To the point where I’m like, 'Did he invent a new move or something? Did he reinvent the jab or I don’t know what?' He improved, yes, but not to the point where people have blown it up to be. The proportion. I think maybe people just have low standards, that’s all. I just have high standards."

Watch Israel Adesanya preview his UFC 271 clash against Robert Whittaker below: