Israel Adesanya doesn’t see Robert Whittaker’s last performances as particularly praiseworthy.
Adesanya doesn’t see that as any way to gain a measure of what to expect at UFC 243.
“I’m the better fighter, because you look at my last two five-round fights and you look at his last two five-round fights, obviously MMA math doesn’t work that way, but you look at the way I am in the fifth round, even in my last fight, I showed out,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. “You look at the way he was in his last round of his last fight and how he looked against a 43-year-old wrestler. Now, I don’t strike like a 43-year-old wrestler. I don’t pick my shots like him. If I hurt you, I’m not going to try and bum rush you and then gas out. I’ll find the shot, and I’ll put him away.”
Adesanya (17-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) is current UFC interim middleweight champion and Whittaker (20-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) is the title holder. They meet at UFC 243 in a championship bout
Getting out of bed on an Israel Adesanya fight week like… pic.twitter.com/wHt9giOHlz
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) September 30, 2019
“Something I keep saying, keep that same energy” Adesanya said. “All we ever do is just try and be better fighters, better martial artists, and that hasn’t changed for this camp. All we just did was just work on ourselves to be better at fighting, and then my coaches have already studied the footage and all that kind of stuff and gameplanned accordingly.
“I didn’t, like: “Oh this is the biggest fight ever, I’m going to do extra.” I always do the extra. I always push myself, so nothing’s changed. We just keep that same energy.”
