Whittaker v Adesanya 2 is set to headline UFC 271 on Feb 13th. The match pits the consensus 2 best middleweights in the world against one another for a second time. The difference in this fight is that the Championship belt rests over the shoulder of a different man this time around.
In their first fight, Whittaker came in as the champion. Adesanya picked Whittaker apart and eventually put him away in the 2nd round to claim the middleweight belt for himself.
Since that fight, Adesanya has gone on to defend his belt against Romero, Costa & Vettori in convincing title defenses.
At the same time, Whittaker regathered himself and made another successful run to get back into title contention. After shaking off his KO loss to Adesanya, he outclassed Darren Till, Jared Cannonier & Kelvin Gastelum and finally got his redemption title shot against the reigning champion.
Whittaker is keen not to make the same mistakes that he did in his first fight against “The Last Stylebender”.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, “Bobby Knuckles” said that he is taking inspiration from former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz, who beat Adesanya at UFC 259.
I think Jan set the blueprint up to beat Izzy, quite, quite thoroughly… patience, striking, and takedowns when opportune…
Robert Whittaker on The MMA Hour
Whittaker admitted that he can’t replicate Blachowicz’s gameplan completely, as him and Jan have different strengths to play with.
He went on to say that another key to victory over Israel would be to take him down and tire him out.
You take him down when you can to make him uncomfortable, to slow his arms and legs down. And you’ve got to be patient, because if you rush in, you get hit in the face, okay
Robert Whittaker on The MMA Hour
This matchup promises to be an epic showdown between 2 of the best MMA middleweights of all time. Will Robert Whittaker have improved enough since the first fight, or will Israel Adesanya prove too much for the Australian native once again.
