Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker not interested in fighting Paulo Costa; only wants Adesanya rematch
Former UFC Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker feels that the Israel Adesanya rematch is the only fight which makes sense for him at this point. The Australian lost to Adesanya at UFC 243 and rebounded by beating Darren Till and Jared Cannonier.
Paulo Costa, who also lost to Adesanya at UFC 253, called out the Australian on Twitter in October.
Hey Robert Whittaker enjoy your end of year, you deserved. When you come back we can do amazing fight
However, the 29-year-old, speaking with MMAJunkie, shot down the idea:
"The only real logical fight for me right now is Izzy. I’ve held this spot as [number] one twice now in the last four, five months, and that’s a fight he [Costa] just lost his contention to the title. That’s really the only fight that I am interested in at the moment. It’s very hard for me to be interested in anything else."
Robert Whittaker wants Israel Adesanya rematch
Israel Adesanya looks set to go up to light-heavyweight to fight newly crowned champion Jan Błachowicz. Dana White confirmed the fight after UFC Fight Night last weekend, hinting Whittaker didn't want the rematch with Adesanya.
"Listen, when the fight was over on ‘Fight Island,’ the last fight [at UFC 254], I was like, ‘I’m going to have to sit down with this kid [Adesanya] and convince him on why he needs to fight Whittaker'.
"Whittaker comes out and says he doesn’t want to fight him – craziest [expletive] I’ve ever seen. Yeah, there’s no arguing with Israel now. I thought Whittaker deserved the shot and Whittaker doesn’t want it, so yeah, we’ll let him do it," the UFC president said.
The former middleweight champion, however, didn't make the comments Dana White claimed he did. In the same interview, Whittaker was baffled by suggestions he didn't want the rematch with the champion.
"I certainly think he took a little twist to what I 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," he clarified.