Israel
Adesanya had to work a little bit harder to dispatch Robert
Whittaker in the UFC 271
main event than he did in their first meeting. At the end of the
night, “The Last Stylebender” was relatively satisfied with his
unanimous decision victory.
“7 out of 10. Not bad,” he said in giving his performance a grade
at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Good night in the
office, good chess match.”
Adesanya became middleweight champion for the first time at UFC
243, when he knocked out Whittaker in the second round. In the
rematch, the City Kickboxing star prevailed in a more technical
affair, but Whittaker was able to take some rounds on the judges
scorecards, so it wasn’t the dominant win Adesanya and his team had
been hoping for leading up to the fight.
“It’s easier said than done,” Adesanya said. “I don’t know people,
I feel like they have goldfish memories, but when they’re in there
with me, they realize ‘Oh s—t’ it’s not as easy as we thought.’
They just have to revert back to what they know … we’re just two
guys trying to be the best in the world, but tonight, I’m the best
in the world.”
Whittaker showed improvement from the first fight with Adesanya,
and the champ acknowledged that “The Reaper” was able to have some
success against him in the Octagon at the Toyota Center in Houston
on Saturday night.
“I wasn’t really looking past Robert. I took him very seriously.
Right all the way to the last bell,” he said. “I knew he was
dangerous. He caught me slipping one time and I was like, ‘Good
one’ cause I was really aware of it on the clinch, when we’d break
away from the clinch, he was going to hit me and he caught me one
on this side and I was like, ‘Good one.’ I acknowledged it. I had
fun in there.”
Adesanya should have his next title defense already lined up.
Jared
Cannonier, who defeated Derek
Brunson via second-round knockout earlier on the main card, has
won five of his last six in UFC competition and appears to be next
in the queue. Adesanya didn’t get to focus on Cannonier’s win, but
he has been targeting “The Killa Gorilla” as a potential foe for
quite some time now.
“I just saw bits and pieces,” Adesanya said. “I think [Cannonier]
even got rocked. I saw he got taken down and then he elbowed
Brunson. I didn’t really take stock. I’ll go back and watch the
fights later on and just see what it is.
“But he made a statement, and I even told him after the weigh-ins —
I said, ‘Look, please take this guy out so I can get some fresh
meat.’ He said ‘I’m trying to work’ and I’m like, ‘Me, too.’ I’m a
man of my word.”