Robert Whittaker's coach reveals the biggest improvement since defeat to Israel Adesanya - "We learned a lot from that loss"
Robert Whittaker's head coach Alex Prates has explained what they've learned heading into the rematch with Israel Adesanya.
For so long now, fans have been waiting to see what would happen if Robert Whittaker finally got his rematch against Israel Adesanya. Now, we're just days away from finding out as the two rivals prepare to meet for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 271.
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It's been a little over two years since they collided at UFC 243 and in that time, they've both been through the fire. Whittaker has beaten Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum, whereas Adesanya has seen off Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori.
Ahead of their Houston showdown, Alex Prates has spoken candidly about what happened on that night in October 2019 and where they go from here. Speaking to Sherdog, he said:
“The first and major change is that Rob was training and competing for so many years, he was a young age. There was pretty much no stopping between fights, two or three weeks, another camp. He got to a point where he was a little bit [burned out] with the whole thing. He took, I think, about three months off, had a good think about it, he was even thinking about stopping fighting. After three months he came back to the gym and decided it’s what he loves to do. He came back with a newfound love, for the training, for the martial arts, he started training with gear again, started to be happy. This is the major change and we also started to adapt a bit. We learned a lot from the loss.”
Prates went on to suggest fans could witness the best Robert Whittaker to date this weekend.
“When you get to that level of striking, the basics have got to be sound. We started to change a bit, get all the fundamentals right. He got better [with every fight], but the biggest improvement that was made was in between the last fight with Gastelum and this fight... Potentially, he can be the best Robert Whittaker you guys have ever seen.”
Catch Sherdog's interview with Prates below:
What happened when Robert Whittaker first fought Israel Adesanya?
At UFC 243, Whittaker simply couldn't overcome what he described to be the "pressure getting to him." He was lunging into shots, not taking his time and was generally being picked apart by Israel Adesanya.
The hope from his fans is that he'll be more calculated this time around because after two bad knockdowns/knockouts in the first fight, he'll be well aware of how terrifying Adesanya's precision can be.
We'll find out if Whittaker has made the necessary adjustments on February 12.