Despite turning in a career-best performance, Jared Cannonier may have to work harder to catch up to the two leading middleweights. ‘Tha Killa Gorilla’ dominated Marvin Vettori at the main event of UFC Vegas 75. While he might have put his name in title contention, a UFC veteran believes UFC champion Israel Adesanya and number 1 contender Robert Whittaker remain unrivaled. A “meaningful gap” separates the highest-ranked middleweights from the rest of the division.
Dashing the hopes of the title-shot candidates, Chael Sonnen attracted attention to the “fascinating position” of the 185 lbs weight class. Notably, the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter has wiped out the top 10 except for Dricus du Plessis. Likewise, ‘The Ripper’ has exhibited a stark mismatch of skills between him and the lower-ranked fighters. Therefore, the rest of the division is willing to bide their time and not rush in for a rematch against the two.
Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker are in a league of their own
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MMA analyst, in a YouTube video, declared there existed a gap between ‘The Last Stylebender’ and the rest of the field. Another such gap stretched between ‘Bobby Knuckles’ and the fighters ranked under him.
He said, “Look middleweight is in a very fascinating position right now. And what that position is you have Israel Adesanya, who is clearly, there’s a gap. There’s a meaningful gap of Adesanya versus the field.”
“But then the second-best guy, which is Robert Whittaker, there’s also a meaningful gap between Whittaker and number three, four, and five,” he added later.
The rift in skills is strikingly enormous as fighters ranging from the top 3 to the top 8 can be clubbed together.
Nobody wants to rush in for a rematch against the top 2
The 46-year-old wrestler stated, “[Number] three, four, five, six, seven, eight- you kind of bunch all those guys together. But you got Adesanya big gap, you’ve got Whittaker big gap rest of the field. But nobody’s in a hurry to rematch Whittaker and Adesanya. And that’s just for parody reasons.”
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He then speculated on how many times the same match can be served to the audience. Thus, there is a need to put in something new. Whittaker squares off against du Plessis at UFC 290 which might decide the next challenger for Adesanya.
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What do you think of these statements by UFC veteran Chael Sonnen? Do you believe other fighters can bridge the gap between Adesanya and Whittaker? Let us know in the comments below.
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