HOUSTON — After Israel Adesanya knocked out Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title at UFC 243 in 2019, Whittaker was not in a good place and took time off to work on himself.
Whittaker says he’s doing much better now ahead of their rematch in the main event of UFC 271 on Saturday night in Houston.
“There were a lot of mental things I got sorted post-fight, that I couldn’t quite deal with until I had that L,” Whittaker said. “And those mental changes stimulated the physical changes that I’ve made in the game and in myself.”
Adesanya (22-1) was happy to hear that Whittaker (23-5) was feeling better, but that was the extent of the good feelings the champ had for his challenger. Adesanya opened his comments about Whittaker by saying that it’s “no secret that we don’t like each other,” before softening a bit.
“I do empathize with what he said… he talked about his dark place he went to after the last time I beat him,” Adesanya said. “I’m glad he’s pulled himself out of it. I’m glad he’s feeling much better. He’s a better man, a better fighter, better all that. But I (want to) take him to the dark place again.”
The first meeting between these fighters ended with Adesanya’s second-round knockout. Adesanya didn’t have any predictions for Saturday night’s rematch, but he did discuss his drive and aspirations to become one of the most dominant fighters in UFC history.
“This is about legacy,” he said. “This is about learning. I haven’t lost that step. I’m still hungry. I’m 32, I’m fresh. I’m young.”
Adesanya has successfully defended his title three times since that 2019 fight and Whittaker has posted unanimous decision wins over Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum to get another shot at the belt.
The 31-year-old Whittaker worked with a sports psychologist in the wake of that 2019 defeat and learned it was better for him to not focus so much on the endpoint but instead the steps along the way.
Some thought that attitude change meant that he didn’t want another title shot. That, he says, is simply not true.
“I did want it. It just it wasn’t something that was I was fixated on,” he said. “I was always working on things. I was working on myself. I was working on the game, and I was enjoying the process.”
In Saturday’s co-main event, heavyweight Derrick Lewis gets a shot to redeem himself in his hometown after a loss in Houston last summer. Lewis (26-6) meets Tai Tuivasa (13-3) Saturday after being knocked out by Ciryl Gane in the third round last August when he headlined UFC 265.
After his poor showing in his last performance in Houston, there was some talk that he wouldn’t want to fight in the city again.
“I don’t know,” he said. “They just told me I had a fight and I said: ‘Yeah, I’ll fight him. It don’t matter.’ So I don’t care where it was at.”
Tuivasa recently revealed that he was drunk when he agreed to the fight.
“Oh, that’s cool,” Lewis said. “I did a lot of things whenever I wasn’t sober, agreed to them and then regretted it later on.”
Tuivasa also finds it amusing that he agreed to a fight with the knockout king of UFC, who has 13 knockouts, after drinking but insists he’s up for the challenge. He isn’t worried about the crowd being against him with the fight being in Lewis’s backyard.
“I don’t really care,” he said. “Once the cage door closes, no one can help you anyway. I’m going to expect a few boos. I’m coming to his hometown, so that’s expected.”
Another fight on the main card features top middleweight contenders, Cannonier (14-5) and Derek Brunson (23-7), with the winner likely to be the next challenger for the main event winner.