Robert Whittaker heads into his rematch with Israel Adesanya in a very different place mentally. The Australian is different heading into UFC 271.

The Australian middleweight had to deal with some things after losing to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243. Robert Whittaker made sure to deal with things once the fight was over.

“There were a lot of mental things I got sorted post-fight that I couldn’t quite deal with until I had that ‘L,'” Whittaker told MMA Junkie at a UFC 271 pre-fight news conference Wednesday. Those mental changes stimulated the physical changes that I’ve made in the game in myself.”

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Robert Whittaker took a long time before getting back to a UFC title shot. He was taking his time and making sure he was ready mentally for the tough rematch ahead of him.

“Honestly, since the (October 2019) loss, I’ve just been focusing on the journey, focusing on taking each fight as it is,” UFC middleweight, Whittaker said. “I was enjoying it. I was thinking, ‘I have to get back to the title shot.’ That’s why throughout the procedure, people were asking me, ‘You don’t want that title shot? They’re saying you don’t want it.’”

“It’s not that I didn’t want it,” Whittaker said of the UFC title shot. “It’s just not something I was fixated on. I was working on things. I was working on myself. I was working on the game. I was enjoying the process. I know all roads lead to Rome, sort-of-thing. As long as I’m winning and getting better and enjoying it, I’d get here eventually.”