Robert Whittaker says Israel Adesanya looked ‘average’ at UFC 263, Adesanya fires back

Robert Whittaker doesn’t think Israel Adesanya’s latest performance against Marvin Vettori was anything to write home about, with ‘The Reaper’ claiming that ‘The Last Stylebender’ isn’t as good as he thinks he is.

While most pundits walked away from the UFC 263 main event crediting Adesanya for putting on yet another striking masterclass against a very game opponent, Whittaker dubbed the champ’s performance ‘average’ and said he wasn’t overly impressed by what he saw.

“Watching that fight against Vettori, you can see Adesanya is not untouchable,” Whittaker said when speaking to the Daily Telegraph. “It reinforced the fact that he’s very human. Very touchable. I actually thought his performance was average. Not average in the context of being bad but he never did anything more than what he had to do. He didn’t do anything flashy. He didn’t do anything more than necessary, which is a good approach.

“But it certainly doesn’t put you in the realm of Gods. He’s definitely not a God. He’s a very good fighter, sure but he’s not as good as he thinks he is.”

Adesanya responded — as witty as ever — via social media, claiming that he ‘baptized’ Whittaker when he KO’d the latter to win the middleweight title at UFC 243.

Whittaker and Adesanya are expected to collide in a title rematch later this year although the bout has yet to be confirmed.