UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker reminded the world why he once held the 185-pound belt on Saturday night in Paris. He dominated Marvin Vettori, and at the post-fight press conference, declared himself “the most dangerous man in the division” – even more so than the champ, Israel Adesanya.
“I’m the most dangerous man in the division. Israel’s the champ. He beat me twice, hats off to him for that. He’s a great fighter, he really is. And I think stylistically he’s a great fighter, but I still think I’m the most dangerous man in the division, because I win. I win a lot and I make people hate fighting. I take the fight out of them, because that’s what I do. I get in there and I get to work.
Is Robert Whittaker The UFC Middleweight Division’s “Most Dangerous Man”?
He knocked me out in the first one, and the second one was a really close decision that, I’m not butt-hurt about it, but on another day it could have been my win.
Mentally, that’s massive. It’s very hard to explain how it feels to get knocked out and lose your belt like that. It sucks. There’s a bit of a learning process afterward, a bit of a picking the pieces up process, and doubts and whatnot. I conquered most of them before that second fight, and in that second fight, I conquered the rest of them, and I think you could see that in this fight today.”
Whittaker continued, praising the champ’s defensive fighting style.
“[Adesanya] is very good – he’s very good. I think his style of fighting, he’s a very good defensive fighter, and he has the physical attributes to do it, as well as the talent and the craft. He’s got the eyes, the head for it. He’s good at what he does. He can avoid danger like nobody’s business, and that makes him hard to dethrone, especially if you go to the points. He’s very hard to dethrone.”
However, the looming threat of Alex Pereira, who defeated Adesanya twice at Glory kickboxing, is not far away.
“I think Pereira is interesting, because they’ve fought before, and the small gloves add some element that’s different from their kickboxing fights. And Pereira’s huge. He’s got the range and the reach, and he’s very offensive with it, so we’re going to see that. But they’re wearing small gloves. He hit him in the kickboxing fight. Small gloves change things. You see it every night. The small gloves change fights.”
Is Robert Whittaker as dangerous as he says he is? Let us know in the comments.
