"All I wanted to do was rip his head off" - Robert Whittaker explains how 'anger and hate' led to Israel Adesanya loss at UFC 243

Robert Whittaker has explained how his anger and hate led to him being beaten by Israel Adesanya via second-round KO in their first fight at UFC 243 in October 2019.

‘The Reaper’ recalled that he was dealing with a lot of things outside the octagon, and he let them and Adesanya faze him. In a conversation with MMA legend Daniel Cormier on an edition of The DC Check-In, Whittaker was asked how he felt going into his UFC 243 grudge match against archrival Adesanya. Whittaker responded by stating:

“Honestly, I think there was a lot of things going on. Like, I was stressed out by a lot of different things. I’ve mentioned it before like, I was burning on a whole host of other stuff. I think all of the external factors, I just kind of directed towards him and took it out on him; which then clouded my mind with anger and hate. And all I wanted to do was rip his head off. And you can see that in the fight.”

Additionally, Whittaker also addressed a long-running theory in the MMA community that he fought aggressively at UFC 243 to replicate the success Kelvin Gastelum had against Adesanya.

‘The Reaper’ insinuated that while this could be true, his gameplan was to force his way into range against his lengthier opponent. Nevertheless, he admitted that his “emotions” caused him to get reckless with his aggression. Highlighting how then-rising star Adesanya’s hype got to him, Whittaker said:

“It upset me that this guy was like, everyone was talking about him and underselling me. And then just, I don’t know. It was a weird dynamic. It did make it personal because it was personal. But that was then.”

Watch Robert Whittaker’s conversation with DC in the video below:

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Robert Whittaker feels he’ll always be rivals with Israel Adesanya

Adesanya will be defending his UFC middleweight title in a highly-anticipated rematch against Whittaker at UFC 271 on February 12th.

Robert Whittaker recently spoke to RT Sport MMA regarding his upcoming rematch against Israel Adesanya. Ahead of his second encounter with 'The Last Stylebender', ‘The Reaper’ asserted that they’re likely to always be rivals. Whittaker said:

"Yeah, I think we'll always be rivals. I think It's a personality thing. The fact that we're both middleweights, strikers, from that part of the world. I think we'll always be rivals." Regarding whether he could be on friendly terms with Adesanya in the future, he said, "Probably not.” Whittaker continued, “I don't like the way he conducts himself. I don't like his character. It doesn't suit me."

Watch Robert Whittaker discuss the Adesanya rematch in the video below: