Israel Adesanya is expecting to make easy work out of the reigning UFC middleweight champion and #9 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the promotion, Robert Whittaker at UFC 243.
UFC 243 takes place Saturday, October 5 from the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia and it will be headlined by Robert Whittaker defending his middleweight championship against interim champion Israel Adesanya in a title unification bout. The odds have Whittaker as a slight favorite at the moment, but as far as Adesanya is concerned, he will be walking into the Octagon as an underdog, cruising while inside the Octagon, and then strolling out with the only official middleweight championship belt (Transcript via MMA Junkie):
“He’s a guy I can pick apart easily,” Adesanya said during a UFC 243 conference call. “A challenge I haven’t faced before? I don’t think so. He just does what he does very well. There’s only a certain amount of awkwardness that he has that I haven’t seen before, but he can try to prove me wrong. From what I see, though, I’ll pick him apart quite easily.”
Robert Whittaker has not lost a fight since 2014 against another rangy kickboxer in Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Since then, “The Reaper” has rallied together nine consecutive victories, including two straight against Yoel Romero in his most recent outings. Despite this success of the champion, Adesanya sees Whittaker as being an advantageous stylistic opponent for him to bend and ultimately break:
“I have these attributes that I use very well, and I think what his camp might look at the last fight and think when Kelvin was able to get close,” Adesanya said. “That was just an error at our part and a good game plan on their part. But we’ve taken care of those errors. I’m going to be able to use my height and reach like I always have.”
Once Adesanya is victorious, he says, he intends to be a much more fighting champion that Whittaker, who, due primarily to injuries, has not yet defended his middleweight championship:
“As a champion, I’ll be a lot more active as a champion than he’s been, and I’ll be a lot more active,” Adesanya said. “Maybe not at the beginning because of timing and everything else, but I’ll be an active champion.”
Do you believe Israel Adesanya is being overconfident ahead of his unification middleweight title fight against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243? If so, will this overconfidence ultimately lead to his downfall?
