Robert Whittaker believes he had success against Israel Adesanya, but simply got caught.
Last night (Oct. 5), Adesanya and Whittaker did battle for the undisputed UFC middleweight title. Going into the bout, Adesanya held interim gold while Whittaker was recognized as the 185-pound kingpin. Adesanya turned in a dominant performance, stopping Whittaker in the second stanza via TKO.
Whittaker Thinks He Was Hurting Adesanya
Whittaker was well enough to attend the UFC 243 post-fight press conference. Speaking to reporters, the former UFC middleweight champion expressed his belief that he was hurting Adesanya before being stopped (via MMAFighting.com).
“He’s tricky to hit,” Whittaker said. “He’s very tall, and he’s good at leaning back. He’s tricky to hit, and saying that I did hit him and I hurt him in that first round. … I tried to hit him. Yeah, who knows?”
“Any guy trying to get in on a tall fighter has to close that gap, and I was having a lot of success doing so,” he added later. “I was hitting him. In that first round I was hitting him, I was hurting him, I was doing work, I was doing damage. I felt really good out there, I felt like I was controlling the fight. And then I just got caught.”
MMA News provided live coverage of UFC 243. Peep the homepage for results, highlights, and post-fight tidbits.
