UFC 236 | Israel Adesanya: ‘I’ll show Robert Whittaker I’m greater than I think I am’

At UFC 234 in February, ‘The Last Stylebender’ Israel Adesanya picked up the biggest win of his still relatively young MMA career when he scored a unanimous decision over former UFC middleweight king, Anderson Silva.

Despite the win, not everyone was all too impressed. And that includes the division’s champion, Robert Whittaker who was supposed to be fighting that same night as well until he suffered a collapsed bowel and hernia that forced him out of action.

Whittaker has since said that he was more impressed with Silva’s performance than Adesanya’s and how the undefeated striker thinks that he’s a bit better than he actually is.

Never shy to say what’s on his mind, Adesanya recently gave a proper response to the champion.

“I don’t think of those comments and it doesn’t affect me in any way,” Adesanya told Submission Radio. “I mean, when the time comes, when I have the mic in my hand, I’m saying my thing. I’ll say, he thinks I’m not as good as I think I am, I’ll show him I’m greater than I think I am. So, they all can talk, they all have something to say until they’re in front of me, and they get chin checked.

“I’m not like [Stephen] ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson]. Even the way I fight, I’m not like Wonderboy, I’m not like anyone he’s ever fought that’s actually given him problems, depending on weight classes. I’m not like Yoel Romero. This is different. I’m still learning. You know, even though I’ve had so many fights in just one year, I’ve learned and I’ve grown with each fight, but it’s only been a year in the UFC. Don’t worry. They’re writing checks with their mouth right now, but their ass will cash it later on.”

The referenced Stephen Thompson is, of course, the last man to defeat Whittaker prior to his move up the middleweight division where he’s been perfect since doing so.

In UFC 236’s co-main event on April 13 in Atlanta, Georgia, Adesanya will face off with Kelvin Gastelum to determine the new interim middleweight champion.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/14/2019