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Dricus Du Plessis tightened his grip on the UFC middleweight belt over the weekend, picking up his second title defense with a decision win over former champ…
Dricus Du Plessis tightened his grip on the UFC middleweight belt over the weekend, picking up his second title defense with a decision win over former champ…
It’s rare and heartening to see fierce rivals put their animosities aside and unite, and that’s exactly what happened with Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker. Adesanya is set to square off against Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia on Feb. 1, to be held at the anb Arena in Riyadh. The […]
It’s rare and heartening to see fierce rivals put their animosities aside and unite, and that’s exactly what happened with Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.
Adesanya is set to square off against Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia on Feb. 1, to be held at the anb Arena in Riyadh. The upcoming Fight Night event marks a significant shift for the former UFC middleweight champion, as it will be his first non-pay-per-view appearance since July 2018.
In preparation for his upcoming bout, “The Last Stylebender” had enlisted the help of his former two-time opponent, Whittaker, to refine his game ahead of the fight. Their collaboration went smoothly, as there was never any deep-seated animosity between the two, despite their history inside the Octagon.
New year, new friends
pic.twitter.com/UC1esTzLqx
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) January 12, 2025
During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Adesanya revealed that “The Reaper,” who is fresh off a first-round knockout loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308, felt the need to revamp his training approach. Initially, Whittaker reached out to City Kickboxing’s Eugene Bareman to gauge their openness to collaboration, and the team welcomed him with open arms.
The Nigerian-born Kiwi found it a pleasant at the unexpected addition of Whittaker to the camp, noting how refreshing it was to join forces with a former rival rather than remaining adversaries.
“Having a guy with his skill set, his experience, a new body, new energy at this stage of your career, it’s always nice,” Adesanya said. “Like he said as well, not many people can understand what we’ve done to get to the point that we had. I was really excited to have him pull up and just share energy with me with the whole team.”
Adesanya went on to say that while preparing to face another skilled striker like Imavov, he found Whittaker’s contributions, even in the brief time he spent at the camp, to be incredibly valuable.
“Of course, even if he didn’t train with me, having him around would have been beneficial to this camp. Because of the energy he brings… But training with him, hanging out with him, moving with him, definitely picked his brain and we just shared a few ideas, but I can’t wait because I’ll go over there and do the same thing and over the next few years, we’ll be linking up a few more times.”
“The Last Stylebender” is experiencing the first two-fight losing streak of his career. The slide started with a unanimous decision defeat to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September 2023, a bout in which he also lost his middleweight title.
Adesanya’s downturn continued at UFC 305 last August, where reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis delivered a crushing submission victory.
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker wasn’t pleased to see an image of his damaged teeth quickly circulating online last October. Whittaker hasn’t competed since suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. The undefeated “Borz” emerged victorious from his toughest test to date in emphatic fashion, […]
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker wasn’t pleased to see an image of his damaged teeth quickly circulating online last October.
Whittaker hasn’t competed since suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi.
The undefeated “Borz” emerged victorious from his toughest test to date in emphatic fashion, locking in a face crank for the first-round submission.
His Australian opponent tapped almost immediately due to the pressure of the submission hold displacing his front teeth. And the severity of the issue was revealed when color commentator Daniel Cormier displayed an image of Whittaker’s damaged mouth toward the end of the broadcast.
The following month, “The Reaper” questioned the former fighter’s decision to share the image — and it would seem he’s still quite irritated.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Uncrowned, Whittaker addressed “DC” broadcasting the image to the MMA fanbase, explaining why he would have rather it stay behind closed doors.
“I was super annoyed! It’s such a scummy thing to do,” Whittaker said. “The doctor took a photo of my mouth and said, ‘I’m just going to go show Dana (White) and Hunter (Campbell) so that they know what’s up.’ And I’m like, ‘Cool.’ And then DC took a photo off the other guy’s phone to post all over socials. It’s like, is that not scummy?
“I don’t care that much (about it being out there), but it looked a lot worse than it (was),” Whittaker continued. “The thing is though,, because it was posted all over the place, I was getting condolence messages, like people thought I was dead. And I would have liked to control the reaction a little better, but it is what it is, what are you gonna do?”
Whittaker went on to note the quick nature of his recovery from what initially appeared to be a traumatic injury, with the ex-champ returning to training just four weeks later.
He’ll now be looking ahead to his first assignment of 2025 and attempt to return to winning ways, as he looks to restart his journey back toward the 185-pound gold.
Just two fights into his UFC tenure and Reinier de Ridder is ready for one of the big guns….
Just two fights into his UFC tenure and Reinier de Ridder is ready for one of the big guns.
The former two-division ONE world champion secured a dominant win over Kevin Holland at UFC 311 in Los Angeles, moving to 2-0 inside the Octagon.
While he is yet to break into the middleweight rankings, that isn’t stopping ‘The Dutch Knight’ from aiming for one of its highest-ranking contenders. During his appearance at the post-fight press conference on Saturday, De Ridder called for a clash with either Robert Whittaker or the next man in line for a shot at the 185-pound crown, Khamzat Chimaev.
‘RDR’ also left the door open for a potential scrap with the winner of next month’s middleweight clash between Israel Adesanya and Nassourdine Imavov.
“Khamzat and Whittaker,” De Ridder, 34, said. “Khamzat will be cool for a grapplers’ matchup, would be cool for all that he’s done. Please, I hope they give me this, it would be amazing. I can be ready as soon as they are. Israel and Imavov will fight soon, as well, one of them would work, too. I can be back in the gym next week.”
Adesanya vs. Imavov will headline the UFC’s return to Saudi Arabia on February 1. As for Chimaev, the undefeated Chechen monster is tipped to take on the winner of UFC 312’s main event rematch between defending middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland.
Overall, Reinier de Ridder is 19-2 in his mixed martial arts career, both of his losses coming against ONE Championship’s former three-division titleholder Anatoly Malykhin. De Ridder surrendered both the ONE light heavyweight and middleweight titles to the Russian juggernaut before exiting the promotion in pursuit of UFC gold.
What’s next for De Ridder is anyone’s guess, but following his dominant performance in Los Angeles, it’s clear that fight fans are excited to see just how far the Dutchman can go on MMA’s biggest stage.
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker expects at least one title to remain in its current hands this weekend, backing Islam Makhachev to double his lead over Arman Tsarukyan. Makhachev and Tsarukyan first collided back in 2019, with the latter making his debut at the UFC Fight Night event in Moscow. While he performed well, […]
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker expects at least one title to remain in its current hands this weekend, backing Islam Makhachev to double his lead over Arman Tsarukyan.
Makhachev and Tsarukyan first collided back in 2019, with the latter making his debut at the UFC Fight Night event in Moscow. While he performed well, the Armenian was ultimately on the wrong end of a decision verdict.
Six years on, the pair have renewed hostilities in Los Angeles this week, as they gear up to headline Saturday’s UFC 311 pay-per-view with Makhachev’s lightweight gold on the line.
During a recent episode of his MMArcade Podcast, Whittaker gave his assessment of the first PPV main event of the new year.
While he acknowledged Tsarukyan’s moments of success in their first fight, he sees a clear “skill gap” that will pave the way for Makhachev’s successful defense of the 155-pound title.
”I just feel like if we look at Islam’s last fight with Dustin and we look at Arman’s last fight with Charles, I just feel like there’s a gap,” Whittaker said. “I feel like there’s a skill gap, and everyone’s saying like, how well Arman (did against Makhachev) — went in his debut short notice etc.
“But you look at the names, you look at the the level of fights, you look at the stage that Islam’s fights were set on, Islam’s in a really good place right now,” Whittaker continued. “I find it very hard to see him getting defeated.”
The grappling exchanges the first time they met
— UFC (@ufc) January 13, 2025
The Dagestani will hope to prove “The Reaper” right come fight night at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome on Jan. 18.
Should he do so, Makhachev will set a new record for most title fight wins and consecutive defenses in the UFC lightweight division, surpassing both Khabib Nurmagomedov and BJ Penn.
It seems that former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker’s visit to City Kickboxing might not have been a one-off. Fans witnessed a good sight this week when Israel Adesanya took to Instagram to reveal he’d been training with Whittaker at the Nigerian-New Zealander’s gym in Auckland. The pair haven’t always seen eye to eye and […]
It seems that former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker’s visit to City Kickboxing might not have been a one-off.
Fans witnessed a good sight this week when Israel Adesanya took to Instagram to reveal he’d been training with Whittaker at the Nigerian-New Zealander’s gym in Auckland.
The pair haven’t always seen eye to eye and were regarded as rivals owing to their two showdowns inside the Octagon, both of which were won by “The Last Stylebender.”
But with the possibility of a trilogy appearing slim following recent results, the pair have put any and all animosity behind them and linked up within the walls of New Zealand’s renowned gym.
And the catalyst for that was evidently Whittaker, who explained to The New Zealand Herald the decision to expand his training horizons in the new year in order to evolve as a fighter.
“We came to the conclusion we needed more bodies, we wanted to experience new training styles, and we started looking at our options,” Whittaker said. “We were looking all over the world; definitely, there’s training out there in the States…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 form a good relationship.’
“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 remarked about training with Adesanya. “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.”
Work with an elite name like Whittaker could come in handy for Adesanya, who is just weeks out from his first assignment of 2025.
After bringing his year-long break from the sport to an end with an unsuccessful title challenge against Dricus Du Plessis last August, “The Last Stylebender” will return to non-title and non-PPV competition when he headlines UFC Saudi Arabia against Nassourdine Imavov on February 1.
“The Reaper,” meanwhile, is without a date for his next outing in the calendar. He most recently fell to a brutal first-round submission at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev three months ago.
