Francis Ajuonuma with agency reports
Israel Adesanya has told Robert Whittaker to forget about getting his hands on the Ultimate Fight Championship middleweight title when they meet this Saturday in UFC 271.

Adesanya presently holds the UFC middleweight title which he won on April 13, 2019, at UFC 243 against Kelvin Gastelum of United States and defended it successfully on October 5, 2019, against the Australian-New Zealander, Whittaker.

Adesanya’s second-round knockout win over Whittaker in 2019 still hurts the latter up till this moment and the former is confident to achieve a repeat performance on February 12 at Toyota Center in Houston
“My prediction is that I am going to f— Whittaker up, again,” Adesanya said. “He can’t stand with me, so I know he will be forced to grapple. Last time he said Kevin Gastelum has given the blueprint on how to beat Adesanya,’ and now he’s saying ‘Jan (Blachowicz) has given the blueprint’…. he needs to write his own blueprint. If he wants to copy someone else’s work, then by all means try, because it went so well last time for him when we fought.

“Whittaker may have learnt from his mistakes from last time for maybe a round or so, but then trust me, he will revert back to those errors. Once he feels what he felt last time, he won’t know where to turn. Also, he didn’t even grapple with me last time, he didn’t really feel me. You can ask any of my previous opponents, they will tell you. So once he feels me in a grapple, then he will get shook again.”

Adesanya has seen the improvements in Whittaker’s game, and he will be cautious of them. He does not, however, see Whittaker’s progress as an automatic win for the Australian.

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“People kept saying what a good guy he is, but trust me he’s not,” Adesanya went on to say. “You don’t see that behind the scenes. And now he’s admitted it was his ego that got the best of him – well I told you so, he should have listened to me! What else can he say?

“He said after the fight that it was the best he’s ever felt, well I do not forget that. If he can get better, he’ll have to bring the best again and I will beat him again.”