“What did he do?”- Israel Adesanya plays down the effectiveness of Robert Whittaker’s takedowns
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At UFC 271, Israel Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker for the second time in his career to retain his middleweight title. The fight gained humongous attention from MMA fans and was very entertaining to watch.
The first time the duo met at UFC 243, Whittaker got knocked out in the second round and lost his title. This time it was a little different as ‘ The Reaper’ survived five rounds against Izzy and put up a great fight.
But, the effort was not enough to take the belt away from ‘The last Stylebender’. Whittaker did manage to stay composed and mix his striking with wrestling and get some takedowns. But Izzy was always good at standing up and not giving Rob any chance to capitalize.
Israel Adesanya breaks down his fight against Robert Whittaker
Adesanya recently posted a video on his YouTube channel where he answered some questions asked by FBS reporter, Dave Blackamoto. In the interview, the champ discussed his recent fight with Whittaker and what he thought about his performance.
Izzy revealed that he was never out of control in the fight and Whittaker never really put him in a dangerous position. Adesanya explained that he is not getting why people are talking about these takedowns made by Whittaker as they did not harm him. Izzy cleared that Whittaker never dominated him on the ground nor he was any close to submitting him. Overall he never felt compromised throughout the bout.
“I remember clearly won the first round and I just felt like on the whole time. I never felt like I lost a step….and the takedowns, I mean like everybody hopping on about those like they did something. I’m like what did he do?. Did he ground and pound me? nope. Did he really threaten to submit? Nope. He kind of threatened one and I literally just poke my tongue at Eugene and the like watch this because we have done this so many times at 9:00 a.m..I was never threatened,” said Israel Adesanya.
After defending his Middleweight title successfully for the fourth time Adesanya once again proved his dominance over the division. The fighter has lapped every top fighter in the weight class and has expressed his intentions to fight new opponents. This might be the best news for middleweight fighter Jared Cannonier who recently defeated Derek Brunson at UFC 271.
Even Dana White has assured that Cannonier will get his title shot in the future and the fight might take place later this year.
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)