Israel Adesanya Shares A Brutal KO of Robert Whittaker As Warmup For Fans

Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will look horns with Marvin Vettori in a rematch from 2018. The duo is set to headline the UFC 263 event on June 12. Adesanya narrowly escaped with a split decision victory last time around when they fought.

In the build-up to his next fight, Adesanya has been sharing many tweets and videos about his preparation and also indirectly firing shots at Vettori.

He recently tweeted a video featuring him and Robert Whittaker. The Nigerian had captioned the video that read, “I finish fights.” 

Adesanya faced Robert Whittaker for the middleweight championship at UFC 243. He was already the interim middleweight champion after beating Kelvin Gastelum earlier.

Whittaker started the match by taking initial control. He charged Adesanya with overhands, jabs, and hooks. Adesanya slowly came into his groove after withstanding Whittaker’s initial charge.

‘The Last Stylebender’ saved his best for the last second of the round as his right connected directly into Whittaker’s jaw and dropped him into the canvas to end round one on high.

The second round again saw an initial charge from Whittaker, but Adesanya was now in complete control. He was able to dodge the latter’s punches. Whittaker landed a good punch right into Adesanya’s face, but the latter was swift as he first landed a right and then a devastating left punch immediately to end the match.

The win crowned Adesanya as the division champion and it only took him 18 months since his debut to get to the top.

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Israel Adesanya: run after the championship

Adesanya (20-1) is the dominant force of the division. He hasn’t lost a single middleweight match since the beginning of his professional MMA career.

He has defended his UFC gold twice after capturing in 2019. His first title defense came against Yoel Romero at UFC 248. The match saw a see-saw battle between the two fighters. In the end, Adesanya picked up a unanimous decision win after 5 rounds.

The Nigerian then fought against the undefeated Brazilian, Paulo Costa at UFC 253 in September last year. He dominated Costa from the beginning and ended the match with a TKO win in round 2.

In pursuit of becoming a dual division champion, Adesanya next challenged Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. The match saw an even battle, but ultimately, Blachowicz’s power proved too much for Adesanya, and he suffered his first career loss with a unanimous decision going in favor of Blachowicz.

Adesanya is certainly looking good to defend his crown against Vettori. But the latter is coming on the back of 5 straight wins and would be aiming to bring his best game. The match could turn out to be a classic encounter come this Saturday.

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