Jeff Smith 
@adminAfter a dominant win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Vegas 24, it looks like Robert Whittaker will get a title rematch with Israel Adesanya. It took Whitaker all five rounds to get the win, but he put on a show doing it. Whether on the ground or standing toe to toe Whittaker showed why he is the number one contender in the middleweight division.
The news that he will be Adesanya’s next opponent did not sit well with Marvin Vettori, who sat ringside at the fight. It was expected that if Whittaker lost Vettori would get his shot at Adesanya for the belt. It was reported that when the bout was over Vettori started shouting for a #1 contender match with Whittaker.
“The Reaper” responded by saying, “I’ve fought nothing but No. 1 contenders, I’ve already ran the gauntlet. Everybody that had a title shot if they beat me, I beat. That’s it.” he added “I like Marvin, I guess. He’s alright. But I think there’s fights he still needs to make. I don’t think he’s fought the top three dudes, the top five dudes, really. But he can wait his turn. Let me have my fight, and then he can fight the winner of that. Relax.”
With the fight not yet being official, it does seem very likely as UFC president, who has a liking for Whittaker, in a statement after the fight said the match-up between Adesanya and Whittaker “makes sense”. And as everyone knows that when you are on Mr. White’s good side you tend to get the fights that “make sense”.
Whittaker, who has never shied away from top opponents, now has three wins in a row over top five ranked fighters. And “The Reaper’s” record since 2014 is an extremely impressive 11-1. That one loss came at the expense of his title to Adesanya via a second round KO.
Whittaker is looking to have the fight back in New Zealand, he lost to “The Last Stylebender” in Australia, in hopes of regaining the title in front of his home country fans.
Whittaker stated in a post fight interview, “I’ll go home and look at my injuries because that was a tough fight. But I think the borders in New Zealand are the best they’ve ever been, so September I think we can get a packed out show and pump the industry down there and the MMA industry as a whole.”
Even with such a great record and top fighter wins over the last seven years, the odds-makers don’t seem to care. The open line on the fight has him as a +210 underdog. Adesanya is a strong favorite at -250 to win despite coming off a loss to light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz. It was apparently a good enough showing in the full 5 rounds to keep him as the favorite.
Wherever and whenever this fight happens, and make no mistake it will happen (barring a sidelining injury), these top two fighters will no doubt put on a show.
