Ahead of his fourth title defense at UFC 271, Israel Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman sat down with Submission Radio for an interview. During the interview, Bareman spoke about Adesanya’s training camp, Robert Whittaker’s improvement and weaknesses, etc. While talking about Robert Whittaker, Bareman revealed the main reason which resulted in Whittaker’s defeat at UFC 243.
The MMA coach explained that while Whittaker was stepping inside the octagon he and Izzy both saw a certain type of pressure on him. According to Bareman, the whole stage of a huge Pay-per-view event was too much for Whitaker to take.
“As soon as he stepped in we observed his mannerism and we looked into his eyes. We both mutually felt that the occasion was just too much for him. It was like you know you could just almost like see it like bearing down on him,” said Bareman on Submission Radio.
At UFC 243, many fight fans believed that Whittaker didn’t look his usual self and was fighting under some pressure. Whitter is regarded as one of the best middleweights in the history of UFC. The performance given by the fighter that night was not up to his reputation.
Maybe the whole idea of New Zealand vs Australia was something that Whittaker took too personally and the top of it defending his title against a fighter like Izzy made the conditions worse.
Robert Whittaker has the opportunity to take his revenge against Israel Adesanya:
Whittaker will get his much-awaited title shot at UFC 271. He will fight against the ‘Stylebender’ at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. This time things are different than before, Whittaker is on a three-fight win streak and is looking amazing.
Robert is training under legendary boxing coach, Johnny Lewis. Hence, his striking skills have improved which is visible in his last bouts.
On top of that, Adesanya has been talking a lot of stuff about Whittaker. It seems like the champ is under some pressure. Adesanya lost to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. Robert has now a blueprint to look at, on how to defeat Izzy. It is something that Whittaker can utilize in his next bout and him being a great wrestler just adds more excitement into the mega match-up.