Israel Adesanya Grills Whittaker On How He Thinks He Won Rematch

UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya isn’t happy with how Robert Whittaker has handled the aftermath of their rematch at UFC 271.

Adesanya earned a unanimous decision victory over Whittaker in their main event rematch at UFC 271. It was a back-and-forth competitive fight, but Adesanya earned the win on the judges’ scorecards.

Despite the final result, some fans along with Whittaker himself had the fight scored the other way. Whittaker admitted he felt he won the fight during his post-fight press conference.

Adesanya had a similar situation happen with another of his previous opponents, Marvin Vettori. During their post-UFC 263 banter, Vettori claimed that he felt he won the fight over Adesanya.

During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Adesanya compared how Whittaker and Vettori handled their losses.

“He and Vettori are sippin’ the same wine that Costa was sippin’,” Adesanya said.

Adesanya went on to claim that he allegedly heard Whittaker’s team having the opposite opinion mid-fight.

“But yeah, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I’m not gonna try to change their opinion. But from what I’ve heard, his corner was telling him in the corner, like, ‘You’re losing this fight. You need to step up.’ That’s what I’ve heard. How the fuck you gonna think you won when your corner’s telling you you’re losing the fight?”

Israel Adesanya Is Expected To Face Jared Cannonier Next

Adesanya is expected to defend his belt against Jared Cannonier later this year. Cannonier earned a gruesome knockout win over Derek Brunson on the UFC 271 main card, setting up a showdown for the middleweight title.

Adesanya has previously expressed interest in a fight with Cannonier, and it appears that it’ll finally come to fruition. Before the win over Brunson, Cannonier had earned big wins over the likes of Jack Hermansson and Kelvin Gastelum.

For now, it appears that any hope of a third fight between Adesanya and Whittaker is on hold. Whittaker will need to go on another win streak to potentially earn a third chance at Adesanya.

How did you score Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker 2?

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