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Ahead of his title defense against Israel Adesanya at UFC 243, Robert Whittaker spoke to the press and opened on a variety of topics.
One of the most interesting takeaways from the interaction was his viewpoint on ring rust. Whittaker's last fight happened in June 2018 and the reigning Middleweight Champion has seen all of his planned title defenses scrapped since then due to injury.
The New Zealand-born Australian isn't too worried about ring rust as he's kept himself in great shape in the offseason.
"No, I don't believe in ring rust. Well, you know what I do believe in ring rust if you aren't doing certain things outside of competition. So if you're not competing at all, if you haven't competed at all and you're not used to the adrenaline dump and you're not used to the pressure that comes with competing then certainly you're going to get in there and the pressure is going to hit you and you're going to - you might falter.
But for myself like in the offseason, I've been competing in Jiu-Jitsu, I've been competing in wrestling, I've been sparring in particular ways to increase the pressure to feel that. I've been doing things, to combat that. And I think surely, I also think that once you reach a certain level, I know what to do when I go to work. I've done this before, I've been in the biggest stages before and I know that, come October I’m going to walk in there and I’m going to do my thing."
The Reaper will take on The Stylebender for the undisputed Middleweight Championship in a few hours at UFC 243 at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Adesanya is the -115 favorite while Whittaker is the -105 underdog going into the highly-anticipated fight.
Live and Exclusive in India on 6th October 2019 from 07:30 am (IST) on SONY TEN 2 & SONY TEN 2 HD and SONY TEN 3 & SONY TEN 3 HD (Hindi) channels.
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