“I think everybody has it,” Robert Whittaker reveals biggest regret in fight loss back in 2019
Robert Whittaker vs Israel Adesanya UFC 243
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker has been nothing short of an exceptionally skilled fighter even after a major setback in losing his champions’ status. After his devastating KO loss to current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya back in 2019, Whittaker has taken no setbacks for almost three years with a 3-fight winning streak over the likes of Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker now heads to seek revenge in a rematch as it unfolds this February.
After their first fight back in 2019 at UFC 243, which by the way was the highest attendees’ event in UFC history, both Adesanya and Whittaker have had a 3-fight winning streak. While Whittaker won a spectacular unanimous decision over the aforementioned names, Adesanya defended his title against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori. Now both the fighters seem to be way ahead of the entire middleweight division and hence the rematch at UFC 271 seems the most sensible matchup.
Robert Whittaker feels his “ego got the best of him” ahead of the first fight with Israel Adesanya
Whittaker came out to MMA Fighting‘s The MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani to talk about his rematch as well as the things that went wrong in the first fight, in the latter part, Robert Whittaker went on a fighter’s mentality note and talked about an important aspect of human personality, the ego, about which in an interview with MMA Junkie formerly, Whittaker accepted got the “best of him” ahead of his last title fight.
“I think everybody has an ego… in some aspect at some angle in their life has an ego… and it’s not bad… I think fighters need a little ego just to do what they have to do, to believe in themselves to back themselves… there’s a fine line [between ego and confidence] you know what I mean,” said Whittaker.
“I don’t mean ego in a way like I thought I was the best, I was untouchable and you know like and you know that sort of dynamic. It was more that, I was everything getting let to me you know my ego was adding me like a multiplier. [Like] ‘Why is everybody giving so much attention to this guy, why is everybody creating a rivalry between New Zealand and Australia,’ when I have done nothing but represent them both, I think that played into my ego,” Whittaker continued. “That’s the biggest regret I had in that fight, I wish I thought like myself [cool, calm, calculated] you know,” he concluded.
What do you make of Robert Whittaker’s response to his take on the last fight he had with Israel Adesanya heading into the rematch? Are we going to see a different fight this time with different results or do you think the current middleweight champion still reigns supreme over the former champion consecutively in the second time meeting as well?
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
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