Robert Whittaker had to make some serious changes when he lost his middleweight title to Israel Adesanya. He told MMA Fighting that he will enter the Octagon for their rematch this weekend as a changed man, a different person, and is promising to reclaim his title.
“Moving into this next fight with how happy I am, how satisfied and confident in myself, in my life, and in my career at the moment, I’m gonna go into this fight and give it my absolute everything, the best of everything that I have, and be satisfied walking out of there.
Whittaker on Adesanya Rematch: “I’m vastly different than the person I was”
That last fight, I guess the overwhelming feeling was dissatisfaction. I was not happy. I was unsatisfied. I feel moving into this next fight I’m going to get that satisfaction…
I am vastly different from the person I was when I had the belt.
I’m much happier for it, and I feel much more complete and satisfied with what I’m doing in life now than I was then. I think getting the belt the second time, I’ll have a much better picture of where I want to go with the belt.”
Whittaker claimed that a “deep dive” into his own psyche helped him to overcome his post-championship disappointment. A four-fight win streak since has earned him a shot at middleweight redemption, one that “The Reaper” is not taking lightly.
“There is a saying that getting the championship title is much easier than holding it, and I agree because not only are the fights hard, but the external factors of being the champion are much more significant than anything else.
You’re the champ, you’ve got the belt, you know how to fight. The skill sets are high, there’s no doubting that. But you weren’t effected by the same things.
It wasn’t until I had gotten the belt, and then lost the belt that I took that step aside from the game. Sat down and took a deep dive into my psyche, why I’m doing things when I truly understood the way I wanted to do things, and how I wanted to do things, what my real legacy is, what I want people to speak about, how I conduct myself, how I want to affect others.
All of that stemmed from a little bit of soul searching after that loss.” Can Robert Whittaker deliver Israel Adesanya his first ever middleweight loss and reclaim UFC gold? Let us know in the comments.
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