Israel Adesanya took on Robert Whittaker last weekend in a highly anticipated title fight rematch in the main event of UFC 271. There were high expectations from this fight as their first fight was filled with a lot of fireworks. However, that didn’t seem to be the case as both Izzy and Bobby Knuckles fought cautiously throughout the five rounds.
After the end of five rounds, The Last Stylebender emerged victorious and he retained his middleweight title successfully via unanimous decision. However, fighters like Michael Chandler, Khamzat Chimaev and few others criticized Adesanya’s approach. Meanwhile, analysts like Chael Sonnen and several fans claimed that Whittaker should have won the rematch due to his takedowns and ground control.
Few days have passed since this rematch and subsequently, Adesanya has posted a video on his YouTube channel where he discussed his chess battle against Robert Whittaker. During one of the segments, Izzy slammed critics who claimed that Whittaker should have won the fight by giving a detailed explanation.
“The takedowns I mean like everyone is hopping on about those like they did something. I’m like what did he do did he ground and pound me, nope. Did he really threaten the submission, nope? He kind of like threatened one and I just literally might have smiled or something. I can’t remember. I poke my tongue at Eugene.”
Israel Adesanya believes that he never lost a step against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271
Israel Adesaanya gave a summary of his fight against Robert Whittaker in his latest YouTube video and revealed that he was in total control during the entirety of five rounds.
It’s hard to say round by round basis because for me it’s just a fight. But I remember clearly won the first round and I just felt on the whole time I never felt like I lost a step apart from a few times when later on he caught me with a jab when I was exiting and a few jabs and I was like oh dang it but this is before watching the fight again I just felt like I never lost a step until he caught me with a few jabs later on.
Now that Adesanya has defeated his arch-rival Robert Whittaker, he will now shift his focus to Jared Cannonier who defeated Derek Brunson via KO/TKO at UFC 271. The Killer Gorilla would most likely be the number one contender for the middleweight title and it would be highly exciting to see this matchup as Cannonier could present a new challenge with his deadly knockout power.