Israel
Adesanya recently made his prediction for the upcoming
UFC on ABC 6 headliner on Saturday in Saudi Arabia.
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Robert
Whittaker (25-7) will face unranked prospect Ikram
Aliskerov (15-1) in the main event at the Kingdom Arena in
Riyadh. Aliskerov stepped up on nine days’ notice, replacing
Whittaker’s originally scheduled opponent Khamzat
Chimaev, who withdrew from the card due to severe illness.
Adesanya is picking Whittaker to emerge victorious. “The Last
Stylebender” believes Whittaker should be able to hold his own
against Aliskerov on the ground, as he was already preparing for an
elite wrestler in Chimaev. According to Adesanya, “Bobby Knuckles”
will likely dispatch Aliskerov in Round 3 or 4.
“Rob was ready to wrestle this fight anyway, so the wrestling’s
gonna be f—-ng top tier in this fight, I think. Striking will be
nice. Banger. I like this banger of a fight,” Adesanya said on his
YouTube channel. “Also this guy [Aliskerov], who did he last beat?
Warlley
Alves. Big step up in competition though against Rob. Rob,
former champion, still on the hunt, still dangerous. I’m picking
Rob this fight.
“I think Rob is gonna beat the breaks off his guy, like maybe from
Round 2 onwards. I think Rob gets past Round 1, he starts to put it
on this guy and he’s gonna feel a different beast. But who knows,
we’ll see. We just haven’t seen him against competition like this
yet. I just know how good Rob is, so I’m gonna go Rob, probably
[via Round] 3 or 4 TKO.”
Adesanya dethroned Whittaker via knockout at UFC 243 in 2019 and
defended his strap via unanimous decision in a rematch against “The
Reaper” at UFC 271 in 2022. Whittaker has been a favorite in all of
his recent outings except for the Adesanya rematch and is listed as
a slight favorite against Aliskerov by most oddsmakers.
Aliskerov hasn’t lost a fight since his lone professional loss
against Khamzat
Chimaev in 2019 on the regional circuit. The Dagestani standout
has finished 11 of his 15 wins, which includes back-to-back first
round stoppage wins to start his UFC journey. Meanwhile, Whittaker
is coming off a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa
at UFC 298 in February.
Adesanya challenges Dricus Du
Plessis for the middleweight title at UFC 305
on Aug. 17 at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.