Robert Whittaker expects fans to see a new side of Israel Adesanya at UFC 287.
The former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is in a unique position at UFC 287. He will be taking on champion Alex Pereira for the fourth time in his combat sports career. It is not common for fighters in the UFC to have this many bouts against the same person, but Adesanya and Pereira seem to be linked forever. They fought twice in kickboxing and once in the UFC, all three times Pereira has been the victor.
Adesanya will now have the chance to finally beat his longtime foe at UFC 287. Much has been put on the possible gameplan for “Stylebender” and one man who has faced him twice has a few thoughts on this subject.
Robert Whittaker thinks Israel Adesanya has nothing to lose against Alex Pereira
Whittaker has faced Adesanya twice before, and both times were losses. He is gunning for another showdown with the former champion and stated that win or lose he wants Adesanya next. Of course, fighting him for the belt would be the best option, and sees a way that Adesanya can finally get the win over Pereira and become champion again. He spoke about this with Mainevent on YouTube.
“It could go two ways really. The first way is that he understands that he could lose in one shot and he’s like one shot away from losing and that Pereira has his number,” he said. “How can he surmount this hill, this mountain, this obstacle, or the story’s already been played out the worst has happened. He got stopped. He’s lost to him three times and he has nothing to lose. And we see a very unrestricted, very creative, unorthodox Adesanya, which I think is what we need to see to see him defeat and then beat Pereira.”
Pereira and Adesanya will be battling for the middleweight belt when the UFC returns to Miami, Fl for the first time in 20 years. This event will go down on April 8, live from the Miami-Dade Arena. Also featured on the card is a welterweight title contender fight between Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal.
