Israel Adesanya Satisfied with UFC 271 Performance, Grades It as ‘7 out of 10’

Israel Adesanya had to work a little bit harder to dispatch Robert Whittaker in the UFC 271 main event than he did in their first meeting. At the end of the night, “The Last Stylebender” was relatively satisfied with his unanimous decision victory.

“7 out of 10. Not bad,” he said in giving his performance a grade at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Good night in the office, good chess match.”

Adesanya became middleweight champion for the first time at UFC 243, when he knocked out Whittaker in the second round. In the rematch, the City Kickboxing star prevailed in a more technical affair, but Whittaker was able to take some rounds on the judges scorecards, so it wasn’t the dominant win Adesanya and his team had been hoping for leading up to the fight.

“It’s easier said than done,” Adesanya said. “I don’t know people, I feel like they have goldfish memories, but when they’re in there with me, they realize ‘Oh s—t’ it’s not as easy as we thought.’ They just have to revert back to what they know … we’re just two guys trying to be the best in the world, but tonight, I’m the best in the world.”

Whittaker showed improvement from the first fight with Adesanya, and the champ acknowledged that “The Reaper” was able to have some success against him in the Octagon at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday night.

“I wasn’t really looking past Robert. I took him very seriously. Right all the way to the last bell,” he said. “I knew he was dangerous. He caught me slipping one time and I was like, ‘Good one’ cause I was really aware of it on the clinch, when we’d break away from the clinch, he was going to hit me and he caught me one on this side and I was like, ‘Good one.’ I acknowledged it. I had fun in there.”

Adesanya should have his next title defense already lined up. Jared Cannonier, who defeated Derek Brunson via second-round knockout earlier on the main card, has won five of his last six in UFC competition and appears to be next in the queue. Adesanya didn’t get to focus on Cannonier’s win, but he has been targeting “The Killa Gorilla” as a potential foe for quite some time now.

“I just saw bits and pieces,” Adesanya said. “I think [Cannonier] even got rocked. I saw he got taken down and then he elbowed Brunson. I didn’t really take stock. I’ll go back and watch the fights later on and just see what it is.

“But he made a statement, and I even told him after the weigh-ins — I said, ‘Look, please take this guy out so I can get some fresh meat.’ He said ‘I’m trying to work’ and I’m like, ‘Me, too.’ I’m a man of my word.”