Robert Whittaker says Israel Adesanya is ‘arguing by himself’

Robert Whittaker has no plans to be goaded into a verbal spat with Israel Adesanya.

Whittaker and Adesanya are set to collide in a middleweight title unification bout on Oct. 5. The championship tilt will serve as UFC 243’s main event. While the headliner and event have been announced, a location has not. While many had anticipated Melbourne, UFC president Dana White revealed during the summer press conference 2019 that nothing is a lock yet.

Adesanya hasn’t let up in his trash talk towards Whittaker. “The Last Stylebender” has blasted “The Reaper” for posting memes of him online as well as responding favorably to Jon Jones’ offer to train with him.

Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Whittaker weighed in on Adesanya’s tirade:

“I guess the biggest difference for this fight and this opponent is that he’s got a problem,” Robert Whittaker said. “He’s kind of like arguing by himself. All my other opponents realize they’re not gonna get a rise out of me and they’re just chill and we fight. In the weeks coming we’ve got a fight. Face-to-face, you know. We can resolve our differences then. It’s different with him because he has a one-man argument. So yeah, I don’t care. It is what it is.”

Whittaker also said that part of the reason why he doesn’t put much stock into Adesanya’s words has to do with the fact that he doesn’t keep up with social media.

“I find some of the things he says funny as well. The thing is, I’m kind of under a rock. I don’t realize a lot of things are going on around me until people tell me. So I’m not very social media aware of what’s going on. It’s like someone will come to the gym and be like, ‘hey man did you see what Izzy said about you?’ And I’m like, ‘nah tell me.’ And then they tell me in their words and it’s funny. I guess I’m just not aware. I’m just not very aware.”

Who do you think will come out on top when Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya collide at UFC 243?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/10/2019.