Robert Whittaker looks to be in a different place mentally heading into his rematch with Israel Adesanya at UFC 271. He changed his approach from the first fight and has been strictly focusing on training.

The former UFC middleweight champion had to take some extra fights before getting the rematch with Israel Adesanya. Many have been bothered about not getting a quick rematch, Robert Whittaker was just staying focused.

“Yeah, I’m not too worried about it, I didn’t think about it too much because I was enjoying the process, I was enjoying the fights,” Whittaker said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “Coming back off the loss and coming back after I took some time to put some things together, it was fun, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the ride. I knew all roads led to here anyway so here we are.”

Robert Whittaker feels like he's a different man than the one that fought Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 in 2019. The Australian felt the pressure from the first fight last time.

Related NewsArticle continues below
brad tavares
Brad Tavares re-signs with UFC, eyes set on UFC history
tom aspinall, jon jones
Tom Aspinall teases Jon Jones fight with UFC meeting: “Tonight Could Change Everything”
whittaker de ridder, ufc abu dhabi
Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder to headline UFC Abu Dhabi on July 26

“First and foremost, I’m a completely different man than I was then, I have come a long way since then,” Whittaker said. “I’m very self-confident in who I am and why I do things, and as well as I’m aware. Having those things hand-in-hand I think I’m going to be quite immune to his tricks… There was a lot of pressure as well but that is the beauty of this fight, no one expects me to win. He’s the champ, he’s been doing so well, so I’m going to go out there and look to execute on what I want to do and put all the hard work to good use.”

Israel Adesanya has gone on a very impressive run since the two met at UFC 243. It's impressive but not enough to actually scare Robert Whittaker.

“He’s looked phenomenal but he looks beatable, he has had some good fights and good performances but I think I can beat him and I have the skillset to beat him,” Whittaker said. “We’ll wait and see… He’s a tough fighter, how I see the fight going is too hard to say. With high-skilled opponents like us, going back-and-forth and counter him and executing our own gameplan you don’t know how it will go out but I’m just going to play it by ear.”