"Make it a dog fight" - Anthony Smith believes Robert Whittaker needs to stop being "too pretty" inside the octagon
Anthony Smith believes Robert Whittaker has a chance to beat Israel Adesanya at UFC 271 but he must do it the hard way. 'Lionheart' pointed to Adesanya's interim title fight with Kelvin Gastelum. He claimed the middleweight champ could be lured into telephone booth striking exchanges inside the cage, where he's more vulnerable to getting hit.
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According to Smith, Whittaker can lure Adesanya into a fistfight with him if he stops 'fighting pretty' and takes the fight to 'The Last Stylebender' instead. During a recent conversation with Chris Weidman on the Won't Back Down podcast, Smith said:
"You can draw Izzy out of being so pretty, you know, if you're just a little bit meaner than he is sometimes. Whittaker wants to be a little too pretty and I think if he wants to draw that out of Izzy, he's going to have to just kind of set some of that prettiness aside and then just kind of make it a dog fight in some of those situations and I think you can draw Izzy into that."
Check out Smith's breakdown of the rematch between Adesanya and Whittaker below:
Anthony Smith feels aggression and calculated approach will help Robert Whittaker reclaim middleweight title
Although Smith thinks taking the fight to Adesanya could be Whittaker's path to victory at UFC 271 this weekend, he admits it didn't work out for the Australian last time. When Whittaker and Adesanya fought at UFC 243, the Nigerian-born Kiwi picked up a KO victory in the second round.
Looking back at the fight, Smith feels Whittaker adopted the strategy of turning the bout into a slugfest but it didn't go according to plan. He pointed out that 'The Reaper' was looking to finish the fight but Adesanya managed to keep his calm and finished his opponent instead.
Having said that, Smith feels that Robert Whittaker must keep switching between a calculated approach and aggression in the rematch. He said:
"In their first fight I felt like he tried that and it did not go well, he tried to spaz out of control right, he tried to throw huge haymakers and he looked so uncomfortable. I think he tried to make it dirty but I think he is that pretty fighter... I think if he works his way in safely and then kind of spazzes out a little bit, I think that's how I would do it if I was fighting Adesanya."
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