“Never said I don’t want to fight Izzy” Robert Whittaker blames Dana White and the UFC for not offering a rematch against Israel Adesanya
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Robert Whittaker defeated Jared Cannonier at UFC 254, recently. People saw a renewed Robert; the Aussie completely dominated Jared Cannonier, in a match people expected to be a close one. The win saw, Whittaker earn the right to challenge middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, once again.
He had lost his middleweight title to the Nigerian when they faced each other, back in 2019. But, then in an unfortunate turn of events, Israel Adesanya will now face Jan Blachowicz for the light-heavyweight title, thereby eliminating any possibility of a rematch between Izzy and Whittaker.
The reason behind the no-show between Izzy and Whittaker according to Dana White was, “Whittaker was uninterested”. But, more recently Whittaker clarified that he never said so, adding that Dana White twisted his words.
“I never said I don’t want to fight Izzy” – Robert Whittaker
Speaking to Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Whittaker exclaimed about UFC President Dana White’s recent comments saying, “I certainly think he took a little twist to what I said. I never said I don’t want to fight Izzy. That’s not something I said. I did not say that. I’m looking to fight March, April next year. I would like to fight Izzy. If Izzy’s moving up to fight Jan, then I’ll move up and fight him there if he gets the win. I want that fight. I do want that fight. We just had to work it into that timeline.“
“It wasn’t so much of a twist of Izzy fighting Jan” – Whittaker on Adesanya vs. Blachowicz
“The Reaper” was clear about his intentions of fighting Israel Adesanya, regardless of the weight division. And he clearly wasn’t happy with the UFC not even attempting to make the rematch happen. Speaking of which Whittaker said, “I have no control on what the UFC’s going to do or what Izzy’s going to do, but whether he’s here at middleweight or up at light heavyweight, I’ll take the fight him.
They never reached out to me. Not once! It wasn’t so much of a twist of Izzy fighting Jan. I can see why they would want to do that, why Izzy would want to do that, why the UFC would want it. I can see that happening. It’s more the twist or how he took my words. Either he misinterpreted it or twisted it a little bit. That one took me for a little bit of a ride. But like I said, my timeline stands. That is the fight that I’ve earned.”
Will we ever see a Whittaker vs Adesanya rematch?
Also Read: A super-confident Israel Adesanya says he will one day move to the heavyweight division; says beating Jan Blachowicz will be a “big f**k you to” Jon Jones
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Gerard Crispin
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