Israel Adesanya believes it would be wise of Robert Whittaker to avoiding trading strikes with him.
On Oct. 5, Adesanya and Whittaker will do battle in the main event of UFC 243. It’ll be a title unification bout as Adesanya holds interim middleweight gold, while Whittaker is the main champion. While Adesanya has brought the heat with his trash talk, Whittaker isn’t enamored with trading barbs.
Adesanya Advises Whittaker To Go For Takedowns
A UFC 243 press conference was held last night (Aug. 14). During the presser, “The Last Stylebender” provided some advice for Whittaker (via MMAJunkie.com).
“My advice is to shoot,” Adesanya said at the press conference, which took place at Deakin Edge in Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia. “If he wants to get the work done, shoot. I mean, no one’s been able to do it. If he wants to stand with me, I like to stand and bang. Let me bang, bro. I’d advise him to keep me grounded come Oct. 6.”
Adesanya went on to say that while he had a war with Kelvin Gastelum, Whittaker is the one who gets hit too often in his fights.
“My last fight, I looked like a potato – I let the Mexican touch me a little bit,” Adesanya said. “His last fight, as well, with the Cuban, he got dropped a lot, got rocked a lot – and that’s a powerful man, an athletic man, an old man. But I’m young. I just turned 30. I’m in my prime right now, just started. He’s younger than me – I haven’t forgotten about that – but he gets touched a lot, and I’m a guy you don’t want to get touched by.
“Ten rounds with Yoel Romero, and (expletive) what? You don’t need 10 rounds with a man. If you spend 10 rounds with one man, that’s five rounds too long. All you need is three, two or one. Understand that.”
