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Israel Adesanya is set to meet Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271, where he will be defending his middleweight title. Chris Weidman recently gave his take on the upcoming title fight.
Many are expecting Robert Whittaker to look better than last time and use his wrestling. For those reasons, Chris Weidman is picking him to upset Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 271.
“I think Whittaker looked so good in that last fight against [Kelvin] Gastelum. You can look at the Gastelum fight where Adesanya fought him [in 2019] and you can compare it to when Whittaker fought Gastelum. But I think you had two different Gastelums at that time, with different confidence levels. That being said, it’s hard to take that fight and be like Whittaker is definitely winning,” Weidman said during an appearance on MMAFighting podcast The Fighter vs The Writer (h/t MixedMartialArts.com). “But I look inside those fights and I look at how guys have progressed since they fought the first time.
“Look at Whittaker and Adesanya since their first fight. Adesanya’s had a loss. He lost to [Jan] Blachowicz — he got outwrestled. He beat [Marvin] Vettori. He’s looked good but I don’t think he’s looked like he’s improved, and got better, and more dangerous and spectacular. I think there’s less of an aura around him than there was in the beginning,” he added. “I think there’s chinks in his armor that have been exposed. And Whittaker’s obviously had his losses, but he’s been coming back looking better than ever. And I think he has a chip on his shoulder going into this fight.”
Chris Weidman noticed that Robert Whittaker took a different approach and didn't engage with the trash-talk heading into UFC 271. That gives him confidence that he'll beat Israel Adesanya.
“The crap that Adesanya talked in the first fight, and after the fight happened, and how Whittaker kind of just kept to himself and he didn’t come back at Adesanya and try and talk trash back. He just kept it in, kept training and you can see he’s improved. And now he has his opportunity to get redemption against a guy who everyone thinks is the best and the greatest of all time. I don’t think he’s at that level yet to even be spoken about at [as the middleweight GOAT].”
Chris Weidman expects Robert Whittaker to use his wrestling and improve from the last fight at UFC 243. He noted the poor performance from last time was due to a ‘malfunction,' something he doesn't expect will happen this time around.
“My prediction: I think Whittaker makes it happen,” he said. … “I think he can win a couple of rounds with some takedowns, but also be way better than he was the first time. The first time that they fought, he had a malfunction out there. It wasn’t his best self for sure.”
