Daniel Cormier, former two-division UFC champion, knows all about rematches and grudge matches. DC’s famous series of fights against Jon Jones is the stuff of MMA legend, and he has a prediction for UFC 271, which will see a rematch between middleweight champ Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, the man he dethroned.
Cormier told Helen Yee that he sees this fight going very differently from the first, which ended in a second-round knockout victory for Adesanya. “I think it’ll be much more competitive.
DC: Adesanya vs Whittaker 2 Will Be “Much More Competitive”
I think Robert Whittaker took time away and in the fights that he’s shown improvement. I don’t know how you improve when you’re Robert Whittaker and you defended the belt so many times and you were the champion and you were all these great things, but you’re still getting better, and he showed that in his last couple fights.
He is really improving, he’s still getting better, and I think being in there with Adesanya, I think a lot of that nervous energy that he may have felt in that fight is not going to be as prevalent, you know. He won’t feel like he needs to rush. He’ll be more patient. He’ll be more willing to take his time in his approach.”
Daniel Cormier wondered if, after seeing Kelvin Gastelum push Adesanya to the limit at UFC 236, Robert Whittaker used that fight as a “blueprint” – just as he says he will after seeing Adesanya lose to Jan Blachowicz.
“I think there was some comfort in watching Adesanya fight against Kelvin Gastelum that was unwarranted.
Seeing Gastelum have success in the areas that he did maybe gave Rob a false sense of what he could do. But you’re not the next man. You’re your own man, and you have to fight in that way. I think Whittaker made some mistakes, and I don’t think he’ll do it again.”
Israel Adesanya still has yet to lose a mixed martial arts fight at middleweight. His only MMA loss came at light heavyweight, in which he lost a decision to the 205 pound champion Jan Blachowicz. Robert Whittaker has admitted that his ego got the better of him the first time, and promises not to make the same mistake.
The fight may well come down to how well Israel Adesanya can grapple with Whittaker, as Adesanya’s loss to Blachowicz was largely determined by the champ’s ground control. If Robert Whittaker can take the middleweight division’s finest kickboxer onto the ground and dominate from there, we may well see a very different fight.
Which way do you see the rematch going? Let us know in the comments.
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