Robert Whittaker feels he is the most dangerous 185-pound fighter on the planet, despite not being the current UFC middleweight title. Whittaker put on yet another outstanding performance at UFC Paris, dominating Marvin Vettori to take home a unanimous decision victory.
The victory solidified him as the No. 2 middleweight in the world and, in the opinion of the former champion, demonstrated that he had certain advantages over champion Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya has defeated Whittaker twice, with the most recent defeat occurring in a rematch at UFC 271 in February of last year. Due to his two defeats, “Bobby Knuckles” now finds himself in a precarious situation within the division, with a third fight appearing improbable anytime soon.
Robert Whittaker claims that his victory against Vettori demonstrates that, if and when a trilogy fight occurs, it will proceed differently than their previous two meetings.
However, Whittaker might not have to battle his way back to the third match against Adesanya. At UFC 281, the middleweight champion will face Alex Pereira in a title defence. Given that Pereira has already defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing, many people think a new champion may emerge soon. Whittaker could easily step in to take on Pereira if that happened, but he isn’t certain it will be an option.
Whittaker is fine with waiting a while before getting a crack at the middleweight title if Pereira is unable to unseat Adesanya, who is now the champion. Whittaker is more than willing to use a bout on Australian territory to advance his ascent back to the title since an Australian event is already planned for the beginning of next year.
