UFC fighters might be extremely strong when it comes to mental and physical endurance, but sometimes they are at their breaking point. Even robust and confident fighters like Israel Adesanya have reached their limits in the past. Adesanya lost his title to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 last year, and now he is weeks away from contesting Dricus du Plessis for the title at UFC 305. He seems confident in his training videos and is not leaving any stone unturned. However, before being a fighter, he is a human, so he did have a hard journey coming up to this point.

In a recent YouTube video for the UFC 305 countdown, the ‘Last Style Bender’ became pretty emotional thinking about his loss. Surprisingly, he is not the only one concerned about the loss, because even Robert Whittaker empathized with the fighter.

Robert Whittaker understands Israel Adesanya’s POV

He is fresh off the first-round cave victory at UFC Saudi Arabia, and the ‘Reaper’ recently appeared in the MMA Arcade podcast. He shared his concerns for Israel Adesanya while also praising him for his prowess.

He said, “Then he [Israel Adesanya] lost to [Sean] Strickland, which… affects you. I’ve had that sort of fight. It makes you question yourself question your ability. When your mind and body let you down, what else can you trust? You lose trust and faith in so many different things. I came back from that. Izzy has a record of coming back from mentally draining things. You can assume he will come back better than ever.” He ended the words with a little threat to Du Plessis by insinuating that Izzy was going to come back stronger. 

Whittaker has his eyes glued to UFC 305 to see who wins between DDP and Izzy because the winner will be his next opponent. Having squared off with both of the fighters in the past, the champ believes that he has the potential to earn redemption.

He understood Adesanya’s mental stress after losing to Sean Strickland because he too lost to ‘Stillnocks’ the last time, and now he is desperate to prove that he is better than his opponent. However, he did not undermine any of the fighters and praised both of his past opponents who are going to fight at UFC 305. Whittaker was certainly right about the mental stress part because Adesanya addressed the same in the latest video.

Israel Adesanya got emotional while talking about his loss

During the UFC 305 countdown video that featured the interviews of both opponents, Adesanya got emotional while talking about his last loss. “I got in there, and it felt like a bad dream. The moment he dropped me, he rocked me. I used a wide strike, and he used a straight punch and got to the target first.” Israel Adesanya continued, “Boom, I dropped, and he’s wailing on me, punching.” Izzy also explained that he wanted to get up after the dangerous blows from Strickland, but his body did not listen to him. He got emotional and said that it was not his night or his game that day.

Strickland’s win was unexpected, but he did achieve the title, and the knockout by the fighter is considered to be one of the biggest losses in the history of the UFC. However, even after winning the title, Strickland could not redeem himself next time and lost it to DDP at UFC 297.

So now the last style vendor has to take away his title: Dricus Du Plessis, who defeated Whittaker as well as Strickland. Do you think he will be able to do it? Tell us in the comments below.