UFC 271 featured a much-anticipated middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker. Since the first encounter, both Adesanya and Whittaker have fought some of the toughest opponents in the middleweight division.
While Israel Adesanya was on a two-fight winning streak coming into UFC 271 Robert Whittaker was riding a three-fight winning streak before this rematch. However, Whittaker’s winning streak came to an end as Adesanya won the fight by unanimous decision.
Though it was not shocking that Adesanya won the fight the judges’ decision had the MMA world split. Many fans believe that Robert Whittaker won three rounds at UFC 271 and was robbed in the main event.
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker official scorecard
As per the judges’ scorecard, Israel Adesanya won the fight by a 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47 decision. Jacob Montalva and Doug Crosby scored the first three rounds in favor of Israel Adesanya and the last two rounds in favor of Robert Whittaker. On the other hand, Mike Beltran scored only the second round in favor of Robert Whittaker.
Except for the first round, the fight was extremely competitive and could have gone either way. Adesanya scored a knockdown in the first round, which secured him the round.
However, Robert Whittaker made a comeback as the fight progressed and implemented a much better game plan. Though Whittaker did not succeed in dominating Adesanya with his ground game he scored four takedowns throughout the fight.
He was also winning the majority of the clinch exchanges and he even got Adesanya’s back and threatened him with a rear-naked choke submission.
Israel Adesanya looked more impressive with his striking. As expected, he was using his reach to hurt Whittaker with his leg kicks. But, Whittaker did a great job defensively and blocked a lot of leg kicks from Adesanya.
Robert Whittaker was having success with boxing in the close range but his boxing attacks became predictable for some part of the fight as Adesanya was dodging them flawlessly. However, Whittaker landed a lot of jabs and left hooks in the later rounds.
Now if we only consider the striking numbers, then Adesanya should win the last four rounds. Adesanya landed 16,17,15, and 13 significant strikes in the last four rounds compared to Whittaker’s 12,12,16, and 10 significant strikes.
However, Whittaker landed four takedowns in the later rounds, had one submission attempt, and had significant success in the clinch, which must be considered.
Not so long ago, Francis Ngannou was rewarded the fifth round against Ciryl Gane because he landed a takedown and had the top position for more than two minutes without any significant damage or submission threat.
Rose Namajunas was also rewarded in her fight against Zhang Weili for securing a takedown and the top position for a significant amount of time in the third round, which was a crucial point in the judges’ decision. And if we consider those two scenarios then Whittaker seems to have done enough to secure more than two rounds.
A comparison between the scores of the cage-side judges and the Global Scorecard for Adesanya/Whittaker 2.
Jacob Montalvo and Doug Crosby scored the fight the same.
Mike Beltran scorecard looked much different.#UFC271 pic.twitter.com/Vqz33qTvVv
— Verdict (@VerdictMMA) February 13, 2022
It would not have been a huge robbery had the judges scored the fight in favor of Robert Whittaker. However, in the title fights, we have always seen that the contender has to beat the champion convincingly in order to win on the judges’ scorecard. B
Despite, the controversial decision, Robert Whittaker seems to stay focused and is willing to climb back to the top and earn another title shot against Adesanya.