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So Close But No Cigar, Adesanya repeated as champ in UFC 271 via UD
Robert Whittaker seemed to do all he could in all five rounds to make the middleweight championship bout interesting against Israel Adesanya. He completed four out of ten total takedown attempts and even bounced back from suffering a tough knockdown early in the first round. However, despite his efforts, “The Reaper” failed to grab the belt once again for the second time against “The Last Style Bender”. Adesanya shined on the biggest stage and showed why he remains to be one of the UFC most dominant fighters in the current era.
His fluidity and head movement between punches and kicks made him seem like a ghost avoiding Whittaker’s sharpest attacks. Adesanya used his long arms and wide frame to keep the distance between his opponent, landing a total of 47% of his significant strikes. Whittaker had his moments in all five rounds, seeming to learn from the mistakes from the second round TKO defeat to Adesanya in UFC243. Whittaker would close the distance throughout a big second round, bouncing back from the knockdown given up early in the first round.
The fight seemed to be in his favor in the later rounds landing quick jabs and completing takedown after takedown. However when the dust settled Whittaker failed to take advantage of the takedowns, unable to hold Adesanya down and cause any major damage. In fact, Whittaker did not land a single strike on the ground. He outclinched his opponent five to two and completed 64% of his total strikes to the head.
While Whittaker tried to focus his strikes using power and force, Adesanya countered with precision. The champion only landed 46% of his strikes to the head, however he slowed his opponent down by attacking the legs. As the fight wore on, Whittaker’s mobility seemed noticeably limited due to Adesanya’s brutal leg kicks. With a strategy used to slow his stronger opponents down like Whittaker, Paulo Costa and even Marvin Vettori we have seen this too many times.
Robert Whittaker along with the rest of the middleweight division will have to go back to the drawing board to vanquish the champion once again. Adesanya in his post fight interview named the #3 middleweight Jared Cannonier as his possible opponent. For Whittaker, a collision course could be set versus Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori or even Sean Strickland this summer.
Written by- Isaac Gomez
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