Robert Whittaker refutes Dana White’s claim, says he’s willing to fight Israel Adesanya at light heavyweight

UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker has questioned Dana White’s claim that he doesn’t want to fight Israel Adesanya.

Whittaker, the former champion lost his title to “The Last Stylebender” last October, but since then, he’s been able to bounce back in style with decision wins over fellow contenders Darren Till and Jared Cannonier. It seemed as if he was destined to square off with Adesanya once again in a rematch, but White recently claimed that “The Reaper” turned the bout down.

During a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Whittaker decided to set the record straight.

“I certainly think he took a little twist to what I said,” Whittaker said. “I never said I don’t want to fight Izzy. That’s not something I said. I did not say that. I’m looking to fight March, April next year. I would like to fight Izzy. If Izzy’s moving up to fight Jan, then I’ll move up and fight him there if he gets the win. I want that fight. I do want that fight. We just had to work it into that timeline.

“I have no control on what the UFC’s going to do or what Izzy’s going to do, but whether he’s here at middleweight or up at light heavyweight, I’ll take the fight him,” Whittaker added.

“They never reached out to me — not once,” Whittaker said. “It wasn’t so much of a twist of Izzy fighting Jan. I can see why they would want to do that, why Izzy would want to do that, why the UFC would want it. I can see that happening. It’s more the twist or how he took my words. Either he misinterpreted it or twisted it a little bit. That one took me for a little bit of a ride. But like I said, my timeline stands. That is the fight that I’ve earned.”

Does a rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker interest you?