Israel Adesanya makes bold statement against UFC champ Rob Whittaker

news.com.au

The rising star of the UFC middleweight division was a winner over one of the greatest of all time at UFC 234 in Anderson Silva but he didn’t impress everyone with the victory, as some UFC stars questioned his credentials.

Someone else who now may not be impressed is New Zealand-born Whittaker after Adesanya claimed that the UFC should strip the Australian of his title belt.

Adesanya felt due to Sunday’s event being the second time Whittaker has been pulled from a title fight that his time as champ should be up — despite Whittaker’s collapsed bowel and internal hernia being completely unpredictable.

Adesanya’s claim came because he doesn’t want to be given or fight for — as Whittaker did when he defeated Yoel Romero at UFC 213 — an interim title belt.

That possibility is in play if Whittaker takes longer than expected to recover and Adesanya fights Kelvin Gastelum, who was No. 1 contender to Whittaker’s title, for an interim belt.

“I think that (interim title fight) is more likely but I don’t like the interim thing because they throw that everywhere,” Adesanya told Stuff.co.nz.

“I’m like, look, strip Rob of the belt because this is not the first time this has happened.

“Strip Rob of the belt, me and Kelvin fight for it and Rob’s the number one contender. So he can come see me when he’s ready.”

Adesanya’s promise of a title fight if he beat Silva only became public knowledge on the week of the fight but Adesanya is now really gunning for it as he viewed fighting the 42-year-old legend as a ‘favour’ to the UFC.

“I did them a favour — fighting an unranked guy who’s coming off a ban of two years. I just had faith that they would honour our agreement and I still have faith that they will honour our agreement, so I know I’m fighting for the belt next.”

Adesanya is currently ranked 5th in the middleweight division with Gastelum at No. 4 but Whittaker has recently beaten two of the fighters ranked above them in Yoel Romero and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.