Former undisputed middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker has claimed he’s unshocked by fan response to Israel Adesanya’s championship loss in opposition to Sean Strickland in the beginning of final month at UFC 293 – claiming the Metropolis Kickboxing striker has a knack of rubbing followers and the general public the flawed manner.
Whittaker, the present quantity three ranked middleweight contender, has been sidelined since he featured on the primary card of UFC 290 again in July throughout Worldwide Combat Week, struggling a second spherical TKO loss to South African finisher, Dricus du Plessis.
The defeat got here as Whittaker’s third on the middleweight restrict since his divisional transfer, following a previous pair of knockout and resolution losses to the above-mentioned, Adesanya within the pair’s championship clashes.
Robert Whittaker claims Israel Adesanya rubs individuals the flawed manner
And sharing his ideas on fan’s appraisal of Strickland somewhat than Adesanya at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia over the course of their struggle week festivities final month, Whittaker claimed he was wholly unsurprised.
“No, I might’ve been shocked the opposite manner,” Robert Whittaker advised MMA Preventing. “I don’t know – and all people is aware of I’m not pals with Izzy (Israel Adesanya). I don’t hate the man, however I’m not pals with him by any means. We simply rub one another the flawed manner. And he appears to rub lots of people the flawed manner. And I’m going to say, Sean (Strickland), you realize, he was sporting the [Crocodile Dundee] hat. He was sporting the hat, that’s one thing – perhaps that’s all it takes.”
“Everybody has achieved foolish issues, you realize?” Robert Whittaker defined. “I suppose Sean’s been, it hink, very offensive to so much individuals proper? However to not us [Australians] but. Possibly we’ve been out of the crosshairs a little bit bit, so perhaps that performed a job. However one other factor is, like, the followers and the blokes that confirmed up on Sunday, they like seeing arduous fights and so they like seeing good fights. Sean went on the market and gave his all and had one of many largest upsets within the middleweight division.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
