Prior to fighting Alex Pereira, Jiri Prochazka accused Alex Pereira of ‘working with Shamans to summon spiritual help’ for the light heavyweight to dominate his opponents. Not too far from the Czech fighter was Israel Adesanya who echoed the same sentiment. Before ‘Poatan’ stepped in to fight Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307, ‘The Last Stylebender’ appeared on the JRE MMA Show and said, “Bro, his spirit. You know what Jiri said about the whole ‘juju’ thing? That’s real.”. Adesanya inferred that the reason Pereira recovered from danger and eventually beat him in their first fight is because ‘Poatan’ was backed by the spirit of his ancestors. Apparently, ‘Stylebender’ feels the same about another opponent he faced twice in Robert Whittaker.

‘The Reaper’ hails from Australia, which has a rich Indigenous history. Much like Alex Pereira, Robert Whittaker has an indigenous background being part Maori and part Samoan, so it’s not a surprise that Adesanya would make the comparison. “Even when I fought Rob the first time in Melbourne, I felt something with him. I have never really spoken on this but like, everyone has something. I have my parent fasting and praying. I have my uncle who’s a pastor praying back in Nigeria, praying for me.”, ‘Stylebender’ said on the most recent episode of the Flagrant podcast.

“Also we all tap in [to the spirit], because we are Indigenous people, we know how to tap into the spirituality of things. So, he has an energy behind him, that just props him up and gets him going. And it’s hard to explain unless you’ve been in there with someone [like that].”, added Adesanya, as he concluded with how Western society large doesn’t ascribe to Eastern notions of spirituality. Israel Adesanya also told Andrew Schulz and co. about how he grew up seeing people possessed in Nigeria, which is probably why he leans into the spiritual.

Fighters have many ways of preparing themselves for fights, whether it’s taking part in ancient rituals or kissing your coach. Dricus Du Plessis is infamous for kissing his coach Morne Visser after beating Whittaker at UFC 209, but according to South African fighter Cameron Saaiman, kissing your father, grandfather or mentor is a greeting in African culture. According to Whittaker, there’s only one circumstance where he’d kiss his coach. Let’s find out what that is.

Robert Whittaker would rather kiss his coach than do what Adesanya does

Dricus Du Plessis‘ gesture with his coach after UFC 209 was ridiculed by many in the fight community. However, ‘DDP’ hasn’t been trolled as much as Israel Adesanya has, particularly in the instance of ‘Stylebender’ painting his nails. The man who publicly railed on Adesanya for painting his nails was Sean Strickland prior to UFC 276, who even bashed the former two-time champion’s obsession with anime. When Robert Whittaker sat down with Aly Mac on Full Violence MMA’s ‘The Kick Back’ series, he was asked to choose between painting his nails like Adesanya or kissing his coach like DDP.

“He kisses on the lips, eh? [I’d] probably kiss my coach”, said Whittaker as Mac joking accused the Australian former champion of being gay. “Sorry babe. To all my friends and family surprise! Right? No, because like, it’s an act of intimacy but it’s not romantic intimacy, just like just closeness. It’s like you kiss your kids on the lips. I don’t know except for when I want to annoy them. Whereas I feel like painting my nails is a choice. It’s like, I don’t know makes me feel funny inside. Yeah, I am not painting my nails. I’ll kiss a grown man but.”, replied ‘The Reaper’.

This display of affection between ‘DDP’ and his coach surprised many UFC buffs, but this gesture is not frowned upon in South African culture where physical skinship is more common than in other cultures. Since Whittaker has his own roots in Indigenous culture, which is quite alien to the Western world, he seems to understand where the middleweight champion is coming from.

Do you agree with Jiri Prochazka and Israel Adesanya that Alex Pereira uses ‘juju’ to win his fights? What about Robert Whittaker? Do you think the former two-time middleweight champion’s words about ‘The Reaper’ carry weight? Let us know in the comments down below.