Midnight Mania! Prediction: Izzy F—ks Whittaker Up!

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC 272 is quickly approaching, and reigning Middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya is not short on confidence ahead of his main event rematch vs. Robert Whittaker.

In the first fight, Adesanya was able to pretty quickly hurt and then finish Whittaker, forcing the Aussie to return to the drawing board. Since then, Whittaker has blended his takedowns with his striking more often, resulting in a big pair of victories and his own renewed confidence. Whittaker has spoken at length about the adjustments necessary for this rematch, speaking about his ego and Adesanya’s ability to get into his head.

Since Adesanya’s trash talk worked last time, why not keep at it? Speaking with Skate.com, “Stylebender”

“My prediction is that I am going to f—k Whittaker up, again. He can’t stand with me, so I know he will be forced to grapple,” Adesanya said. “Last time he said ‘Kevin Gastelum has given the blueprint on how to beat Adesanya’ and now he’s saying ‘Jan 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.”

In addition to criticizing Whittaker’s strategic approach, Adesanya believes he can force Whittaker back into the habits that allowed Adesanya to find the knockout last time. If Whittaker can’t find success in the striking or grappling, there aren’t many paths to victory for him.

“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.”

UFC 272 is set to go down next weekend (Sat. Feb. 12, 2022) from inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.