Israel Adesanya “glad” Robert Whittaker is “starting to find that balance”

Former UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker recently opened on up on feeling “burnt out.” Israel Adesanya, the man that took Whittaker’s title, is glad to see his former foe working through these issues.

Whittaker initially opened up on his troubles in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

“That second [Yoel] Romero fight, it took heaps out of me,” Whittaker said. “And not just the fight itself, but the bullshit that surrounded it with my [injured] hand and so on. But you keep going. Even with the illnesses I had too, I was out of the Octagon but working twice as hard because I felt like I’d let a lot of people down. So while I wasn’t fighting, I never rested. You can’t say ‘hey, maybe I’m burnt out’. As soon as one fight is over, you have another title fight on the way.”

While Adesanya and Whittaker exchanged a bit of trash talk before their 2019 fight, Adesanya is glad Whittaker is working through his issues.

As the reigning champ puts it, there’s a lot more to life than fighting.

“Rob, recently I read an article about him on the sand dunes and he had this epiphany where he was just like, ‘Huh what am I?’ and I kinda liked that for him,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie. “I’m happy for him that he realized that before it was too late because there’s more important things in this world than fighting. He’s got a family, he’s got friends and other things that are more important. Definitely, fighting is really important, but I’m happy that he made that realization that this s**t ain’t everything.

“All this s**t is gonna end one day and then what are you gonna be left with? Are you gonna be set up for life, or are you gonna be set up for life and have nothing in your personal life? You have to balance it, so I’m glad he’s starting to find that balance now.”

What do you think of these comments from Israel Adesanya?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/30/2020.