It appears that the next fight for UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya will be a rematch against former champ, Robert Whittaker. Before this has even become official, the two rivals are already beginning to go back and forth with each other.
Adesanya beat Whittaker for the middleweight belt, back in 2019. Since then, Rob has won three in a row to set up a rematch with the champ, who has defended his title three times since their first meeting.
The most recent time that Israel was seen in the Octagon, he beat Marvin Vettori in a rematch, throughout a five-round decision. However, as he explained in a recent interview, Robert was not particularly impressed with Izzy’s performance in this fight.
“Watching that fight against Vettori, you can see Adesanya is not untouchable. It reinforced the fact that he’s very human. Very touchable,” Whittaker said.
“I actually thought his performance was average. Not average in the context of being bad but he never did anything more than what he had to do. He didn’t do anything flashy. He didn’t do anything more than necessary, which is a good approach.
“But it certainly doesn’t put you in the realm of Gods,” Whittaker added. “He’s definitely not a God. He’s a very good fighter, sure but he’s not as good as he thinks he is.”
Israel Adesanya Fires Back At Robert Whittaker
Of course, these comments from Robert Whittaker did not go unnoticed by Israel Adesanya. In fact, he did not take too kindly to what his former foe had to say about him.
Posting to his Instagram Stories, Izzy had a response to Robert’s comments about him not being that good. He brought up the way he was able to handle Rob in their first meeting, questioning what it makes him, if Izzy is not that good.
“If I’m ‘not as good as I think I am’ then what does that make you?” Adesanya wrote.
Adesanya then followed this up with a tweet, directed at the comments Whittaker made about him not being a god. Here, he explained that he did not need to be a god in order to get the better of Robert.
“I might not be a god to you, but I baptized you #Jezus” he wrote.
The rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker is not even booked yet, and things are already heating up between the two. It will be exciting to see how this second fight goes down.
