Over a year since his hotly contested rematch against Yoel Romero, Robert Whittaker returns this weekend to cement himself as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, and defend his middleweight belt against the UFC’s newest star, Israel Adesanya, who looks to complete his meteoric rise from UFC newcomer to UFC champion. But despite the excitement, how the fight will play out seems to be anybody’s guess. So, in this article I will try and explain the styles, skills and abilities of each fighter, and how they might into play in this high-stakes Australasian matchup, a true fight of the year contender that is tipped to break the all-time attendance record, and earn these talented fighters a place in MMA lore for years to come.
Starting with the champ, Whittaker has been terrorising the UFC’s middleweight division since abandoning the welterweights in 2014. Fighting at a healthier, more natural weight, The Reaper has dominated with his MMA-specific striking style. Standing much squarer than most kickboxers and Muay Thai fighters, Whittaker strikes with smaller, sharper hip movements, and this unique striking technique gives the champion several advantages likely to play a role in this weekend’s fight.
To begin with, by striking with these sharper, more controlled hip movements, Whittaker rarely takes himself off balance, and this brings two benefits to his fight with Adesanya. Firstly, it means that Whittaker rarely overreaches and exposes himself to his opponent’s counters. And this ability to stay tight and controlled during the exchanges will be especially important as Adesanya is adept at frustrating his opponents, and punishing them when they overreach trying to score the knockout. Secondly, these same hip-movements ensure that Whittaker can quickly reset his stance after striking, and this means he is able to chain together unusual and unexpected combinations that could help him counter Israel’s hands-down head-movement. To be specific, Whittaker’s scary left-hook works more on shoulder than hip rotation, giving him the ability to throw it from almost any position, and following almost any combination. Likewise, Whittaker’s snappy high kicks will be a constant threat. Instead of fully rotating his hips like a traditional kickboxer The Reaper takes a slight angle, looking to snap his kicks into his opponent as they move off the centre line. If Adesanya finds himself backing up and using his head movement to slip and escape, these weapons could pose a real threat.
Whittaker only needs to land once, and by throwing an extra, unexpected strike on the end of a combination it’s possible he reimagines Weidman’s KO against Silva. This is especially true given Whittaker’s terrifying ground and pound. Earning him deserved comparisons to GOAT contender GSP, Whittaker’s way of standing over his opponents and raining down heavy strikes with one hand while he controls his balance and his opponent with the other is pure violence. If Adesanya gets knocked down, expect a brutal follow up. It will also be interesting to see if Whittaker looks to take Adesanya down. Given his ground and pound ability, the fact that his last three training camps have likely been heavily grappling-based, his impressive fight IQ, and his coach’s GSP comparisons, I would not be surprised to see Whittaker at least attempt a few takedowns so as to get Stylebender thinking about that threat.
Finally, if Whittaker is to beat Adesanya he will have to use his pace. Before his understandably more reserved fights against Romero, Whittaker had the highest striking rate in middleweight history, and this high-volume style is essential if he is to retain his championship. Adesanya is most dangerous when he is the one dictating the pace of the fight, where he has the time and space to implement his playful style. But if Whittaker can use his volume to push the pace, close the distance and get Adesanya reacting to his shots, he can frustrate the challenger’s rhythm and stifle much of his best work. Nobody in the UFC can beat Adesanya in straight kickboxing, so it’s essential for Whittaker that he doesn’t allow Israel the time and space for his sophisticated setups.
Unlike the champion Israel Adesanya is a relative newcomer to the UFC, but since his arrival in February 2018 he has gone from being a prodigy on the watchlists of only the most committed MMA fans, to a mainstream star on the cusp of a world championship and worldwide stardom. A rangy striker, Stylebender learnt his craft in the ring before transferring it to the cage. A veteran of over 70 kickboxing fights, the striking pedigree he brings is rarely seen in MMA, and has earnt him constant comparisons to another GOAT contender in Anderson Silva.
Working from distance, and using his length to keep his opponents at bay, Stylebender is a master of deception. Fighting from the outside he often spends the first-round feinting and teasing his opponents, testing their reactions as he learns to read the patterns in their movement. But as the fight goes on and Adesanya finds his rhythm, his feints and unorthodox movements serve to setup his laser accurate strikes. This is especially dangerous given Adesanya’s seemingly infinite array of weapons. Employing straight punches, hooks, uppercuts, switch kicks, roundhouse kicks, question mark kicks, tornado kicks, strange Ong-Bak elbows, spinning elbows and jumping knees, every movement of Adesanya’s poses a threat.
This is exactly his strategy. Because he can hit you from anywhere with anything, Stylebender’s feints and unorthodox movements overwhelm his opponents’ minds with information, flustering them as they begin to second guess their strategies and expectations. A good example of this is his off-rhythm timing. Often, Stylebender will use his body movement to signal a strike, baiting his opponent into reacting only for the strike to come half a second after it was expected, when his opponents’ guard starts to drop. As sophisticated a striker as you are likely to see in MMA, this kind of mental overload is a hallmark of his fights, and allows him to toy with his opponents like nobody else.
Stylebender will undoubtedly be looking to pick his shots at range, looking to set-up the champion as he uses his seven-inch reach advantage. One specific technique that is worth looking out for in this fight is the push kick to the face. This is especially useful for fighters with long legs like Adesanya, even more so when fighting shorter opponents, and even more useful again when said opponent has a particularly square stance like Whittaker. Not to mention that if this does start to work and Whittaker starts reacting to it, Stylebender’s characteristic question mark kick will only become more available.
This striking acumen poses a problem to anyone in world mixed martial arts, and combined with his impressive takedown defence Israel Adesanya is a real threat to Whittaker’s middleweight title.
It is almost impossible to predict the outcome of this fight. If Whittaker can close the distance and pressure Adesanya I would not be surprised to see the fight end with Bobby Knuckles raining down strikes on his downed opponent. But if Adesanya can use his range and get Whittaker biting on his feints, we could just as easily be witness to the birth of an all-time great. Regardless of the result, the stage is set for one of the most iconic fights in recent history, and if both fighters are on form, we could be looking at one of the fights of the year if not the decade.