Israel Adesanya will fight Robert Whitaker if “The Reaper” beats Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290, but his team won’t be happy about that.
This is the general gist we get from multiple interviews with Adesanya and his trainer, Eugene Bareman. With Adesanya set to defend his middleweight title in Sydney in September, Whitaker vs. Du Plessis on July 8 became likely the #1 contender’s match. One “The Last Stylebender” predicts Whitaker will win, derailing a grudge match with Du Plessis for track it.
“I would say Rob could take him out of there in the second round, or beat him to three rounds,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. (via MMA Fighting). “Dracus’s only chance—I don’t like to say there’s no way, because there is always a way—but he can’t hold out against Rob. I think Rob will be faster than him, fitter than him, so he might have to make it ugly. But Rob can fight. Ugly too, so we’ll see.”
Honestly, 70 [percent chance Whittaker wins]But I really want Dricos.”
Adesanya and Whittaker had already fought twice before, with Adesanya holding a 2-0 lead over the former middleweight champion. According to Israeli coach Eugene Barman, their reluctance to fight a third fight has to do with Whittaker not receiving awards after the second defeat.
“We fought him, and he’s basically been in the ring once since.” Barman said Interview with Sky Sports New Zealand. “While we were just following along, so I don’t know.”
“We are who we are. Just put the opponent in front of us, then we’ll fight. I mean, our preference is not to fight Robert again because obviously we’ve beaten Robert twice already, and he hasn’t really done anything since that loss to warrant fighting again. So our preference would be South Africa.” But then South Africa has to cross the line, and they obviously have a very tough opponent.”
Whitaker is a big -390 favorite over du Plessis, who is a +280 dog. So the odds definitely point towards a third Adesanya vs. Whitaker fight. On his YouTube channel, Izzy said it wouldn’t bother him.
“I think there is another story,” he said. “He’s in a new town in Australia, another stadium, I’m sure. This, it’s going to be a nice day. I love it in Sydney. It’s going to be a sunny day.”