The fighters will fight for the middleweight title at UFC 271
The fight will take place on February 13 in Houston (Texas, USA) at the Toyota Center and will become the main event of the UFC 271 PPV tournament. The estimated start of the fight is 07:00 Kyiv time. The fight will be broadcast live on Setanta Sports.
The main event of UFC 271 includes a big fight with the middleweight title on the line. Belt holder Israel Adesanya (21-1) will try to beat Robert Whittaker (23-5) for the second time.
Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya
Former Glory middleweight title challenger Adesanya moved to the UFC in 2018 and won his opening five fights in the promotion before getting a title shot.
Adesanya went to UFC Rob Wilkinson, Marvin Vettori, Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson and the legendary Anderson Silva to defeat Kelvin Gastelum on points in April 2019 at UFC 236 to become interim middleweight champion while regular champion Robert Whittaker corrected health. In October of the same year at UFC 243, Adesanya won the unification fight, knocking out Whittaker in the 2nd round.
In 2020, Adesanya defended his title twice, with a decision win over Yoel Romero and a 2nd round knockout over the previously unbeaten Paulo Costa, bringing his MMA record to 20-0. But in March 2021 at UFC 259, Adesanya did little in the fight for the light heavyweight title against Jan Blachowicz, the Polish champion was too tough for him – Blachowicz’s victory by unanimous decision.
At UFC 263 in June, Adesanya returned to middleweight to defend his title for the third time, with a one-sided points win over Vettori in a rematch.
Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker
In November 2014, Whittaker made his middleweight debut, moving up from welterweight, and it did him a lot of good. A 6-0 record at the new weight, including victories over Uriah Hall, Derek Brunson and Ronaldo Souza, saw Whittaker win the Interim UFC Middleweight Championship in July 2017 after a close decision victory over Yoel Romero. And in December 2017, Georges St-Pierre will give up his title and Whittaker will become the new undisputed UFC middleweight champion.
Staphylococcus allowed Whittaker to return to the octagon only in June 2018 to again beat Romero on points in an extremely competitive battle, however, due to the unsuccessful weight race of the Cuban, the fight received non-title status. And in the next fight, Whittaker, returning from surgery to remove a herniated disc, will lose to Adesanya.
Since the loss, Whittaker has fought three fights, ending them all equally in his favor by unanimous decision. In 2020, he passed Darren Till and Jared Cannonier, and in April 2021, the New Zealander won against Gastelum.
Prediction for the fight
Few argue with the fact that two of the strongest middleweight fighters will fight in the octagon this coming weekend. Who will emerge victorious this time?
It is probably fair to assume that the rematch will be closer than the first meeting, when Adesanya used Whittaker’s aggression against himself. Israel countered beautifully and landed enough accurate punches to knock out The Reaper in the second round.
Now Whittaker knows he can no longer afford to act like this. It seems that he has changed his style since the defeat of Adesanya. In particular, in the fights against Till and Cannonir, he acted in a more counter-attacking manner and was more focused on outplaying opponents and earning points.
However, despite these changes, it’s still hard to see how Whittaker can outbid Adesanya on the stand. He is not as fast or accurate as the champion and it is likely that due to the damage he has taken in recent years, the challenger is no longer holding the punch as well as he used to.
So can Whittaker even win? He can use Blachowicz’s clear game plan, using clinches and takedowns followed by ground and pound on his way to victory. Will Whittaker be able to copy these actions? The big question is around his takedowns, as Whittaker is a defensive fighter and we’ve never seen him go two-legged. More importantly, he lacks the size and power advantages that Blachowicz enjoyed against Adesanya.
Overall, the Reaper is good enough to make a fight competitive, but if he can’t consistently bring the champion to the ground and keep him there, he’ll have a hard time on his feet against a faster, more accurate striker. Therefore, we believe that Adesanya will outplay again and be able to finish Whittaker in the standing position, but this time it will be more difficult for him to do it.
Adesanya wins by knockout in the 4th round
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