Aussie UFC great Rob Whittaker has weighed in on rival Israel Adesanya’s shock loss last Sunday, questioning “who let in” Alex Pereira as a possible title shot looms.
Laughing as he spoke about the UFC 281 middleweight title bout that saw Adesanya knocked out for the first time in his UFC career, Whittaker was simply shocked by Pereira’s size.
“I’m not planning past (Paulo) Costa (in Perth in February),” he said at the UFC 284 launch on Wednesday.
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“But I think Pereira is a better match up for me than Israel. The way he stands, the way he likes to push forward and the way he likes to fight I feel gives me a better edge.
“In saying that, did you see the size of the fella? Why is nobody mentioning that? Dude’s a giant. He’s an absolute giant.
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“I’ve been face-to-face with Israel – he’s actually pretty big. He looks tall and lanky but he’s actually a big dude. And you see Pereira up against him and just his facial features are bigger, his feet, hands, forearms are massive. I’m just thinking, who let this guy in?
“But still I think I can take him.
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“I was just looking at that fight (between Adesanya and Pereira) – it was a great fight. I was looking at it like, man these guys are sooo tall! Look at the range on them.”
Whittaker refused to “belittle” Sunday’s epic middleweight clash and was full of praise for both rivals’ performances.
“I wanted to come up here and just be like ‘ha ha’!” Whittaker said.
“For one, Izzy’s growing on me, for whatever reason. The amount of research and stuff that I’ve done into him, has made me actual start to like him.
“I would be belittling it tying to take any jabs at (the bout). I think it was a stellar performance between two super high level athletes ad they should both be proud of themselves.
“Pereira almost got finished in the first round. Izzy came in with a ton of confidence in the second and third and started waning as Pereira obviously wasn’t going any where.”
Whittaker, whose reaction to the Adesanya loss went viral as he was left speechless by Pereira’s blow, admitted he found it hard to watch opponents in his division.
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“This is why I find it hard to watch middleweight fights. I’m always kind of sizing up everybody. It makes the fights no fun,” he said.
“The whole I was watching I was like, ‘yeah I’m faster than him’. (laughs) Or ‘I can do that’, different things like that. It was just a great fight. They are great fighters.”
Whittaker is currently preparing for his next fight at UFC284 in Perth against Paulo Costa.
