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Robert Whittaker: ‘Adesanya Is a Better Stylistic Matchup for Me than Gastelum’



Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ Robert Whittaker is still recovering from the hernia surgery that forced him out of his scheduled title defense at UFC 234, but he has his eye on the queue of contenders waiting for him upon his return.

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With the champ sidelined, the UFC decided to create an interim title fight between Whittaker’s previously scheduled challenger, Kelvin Gastelum, and undefeated Nigerian-born New Zealander Israel Adesanya at UFC 236 on April 13 in Atlanta. Whittaker was a recent guest on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show and said that Gastelum presents a tougher proposition for him due to his high-pressure style than “The Last Stylebender,” who prefers to fight at distance.

“I think, stylistically for us, Adesanya matches up better for me,” Whittaker said. “I think I can get inside his guard and I can put heat on him. I think Gastelum is a hard fight because he’s a tough guy with a thick head and he would have just put the pressure on, put the pace on. I think Adesanya doesn’t like pacing like that in that sort of way, I think he would try and play a distance game with me which I’m very happy to do, but I’m very quick and I surprise a lot of people with that.”

Adesanya has been labelled “overrated” by former middleweight champion Chris Weidman, who questioned the caliber of Adesanya’s opponents. While Whittaker doesn’t necessarily agree with that statement, he wasn’t impressed with Adesanya’s performance at UFC 234 against aging legend Anderson Silva.

“I wasn’t impressed with his performance against Anderson,” Whittaker said. “If anything, I was impressed with Anderson’s performance against Adesanya. Anderson is not in his heyday anymore. He’s easily on his way out. Everyone can see that. And for Anderson to put up such a good fight… You know, I gave Anderson that second round. For him to put up such a good fight against a dude who’s on a tear with such a high-level striking skill set, and is running through people, I thought ‘props to Anderson.’”

“Adesanya’s very good. Don’t get me wrong. I just think he’s trying to build a hype train that doesn’t exist.

“The Reaper” maintains that Adesanya hasn’t fought anyone near the level of fighters he has including beating Cuban Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero in back-to-back wars and finishing grappling ace Ronaldo Souza before that.

“Get Adesanya to run the gauntlet like I did,” Whittaker said with a laugh. “Let’s see if he looks the same afterwards.”

UFC 236: Holloway vs. Poirier takes place Saturday, April 13 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. While the card is still taking shape, it is scheduled to be topped by a pair of interim title fights, as featherweight champion Max Holloway takes on Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title in the main event, with Gastelum and Adesanya in the co-main.
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