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Kenny Florian believes Israel Adesanya is playing mind games with Robert Whittaker ahead of their heavily-anticipated rematch at UFC 271.
'The Last Stylebender' defeated Whittaker by second-round KO to capture the middleweight crown during their first encounter at UFC 243. 'The Reaper' has admitted that Adesanya was inside his head during their first meeting.
During a recent episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast, Kenny Florian opined that Robert Whittaker would put on a much-improved performance against Israel Adesanya at UFC 271. However, he still tipped the Nigerian-born New Zealander to retain the 185lbs strap. Florian said:
"Adesanya's clearly trying to get him more emotional... Adesanya clearly going at, probably, a weakness of Whittaker. Like, everyone knows he's a nice guy. And he's basically trying to make Whittaker look like a punk like he's a fake. That would certainly get someone emotional. And I think Adesanya's trying to get into his head. Will it work a second time? I don't know. I think Whittaker learned from his mistake of being overly emotional. I think we're going to get a much better fight. While Whittaker can win this fight, will he win this fight? No, I'm going to go with Adesanya."
Check out the entire episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast:
Robert Whittaker reveals why he lost the first fight against Israel Adesanya
Despite riding a nine-fight win streak heading into his first meeting with Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker dropped the middleweight title and looked completely outmatched.
However, the Australian has made significant strides forward since then and has emerged as one of the most well-rounded middleweights in recent memory. During a recent interview with LowKick MMA, Whittaker revealed that he couldn't perform at an optimal level and admitted that Adesanya got under his skin:
"I didn't get that satisfaction after the first fight. I lost, but I feel like I didn't give a hundred percent. I feel like it wasn't me out there, I feel like in the lead up it wasn't how I wanted to do things, so if I can do all that in this fight moving forward, I'll leave satisfied... I think everybody's got ego, but I feel like some people just don't want to look into it... I guess why Adesanya] got under my skin, and I have looked at it, it was my ego getting the better of me. I was threatened by this new guy coming in and doing my thing and taking it from me. I think that got to me," said Whittaker.
Check out the entire interview:
Robert Whittaker has earned another crack at middleweight gold by defeating three contenders in Darren Till, Jarod Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. Even though he's made significant improvements to his game, the 23-5 fighter might have to showcase an even greater evolution to reclaim the title from Israel Adesanya at UFC 271.
