Longtime UFC foes reunited on the mats.
Robert Whittaker (27-8 MMA, 17-6 UFC) and Israel Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC), who fought two times for the UFC middleweight title, recently spent time training at “The Stylebender’s” gym, City Kickboxing in New Zealand.
Whittaker explains how he reached out to Adesanya’s gym to make it happen.
“We came to the conclusion we needed more bodies. We wanted to experience new training styles, and we started looking at our options,” Whittaker told the New Zealand Herald. “We were looking all over the world – definitely, there’s training out there in the States and whatnot.
“But, like a flash of lightning (I thought) CKB’s just across the lake – it’s practically home, why don’t we contact them, head over, meet the boys, see if it works, then maybe we can work something out and try to form a good relationship.”
Adesanya stopped Whittaker to become middleweight champion at UFC 243, then edged him out by decision to retain his title at UFC 271.
“There is no way I thought we’d be here breaking bread, you know? But here we are, the world’s a funny place,” Whittaker said. “I’m happy for it because, just being open to ideas, to broadening horizons, I’ve met some new boys, I’m getting some new work out of it, and it just keeps things fun, keeps things interesting.”
Whittaker admits he was never a fan of Adesanya in the past, but with a trilogy bout now unlikely, he’s open to continue training with him.
“You don’t want to like a rival,” Whittaker said. “There’s a point I make of like not trying to like any other middleweights just because of the potential of fighting them, but I think that door’s kind of closed with me and him now training together. I’ve been in the game so long, he’s been in the game, we know what the stakes are. If anything, we know each other better than most other people.”
Adesanya will look to snap a two-fight losing skid when he takes on Nassourdine Imavov (15-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) on Feb. 1 in the UFC Fight Night 250 headliner at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Saudi Arabia.
