"This will be worse than the first time" - Israel Adesanya seemingly issues warning to Robert Whittaker

Israel Adesanya has seemingly issued an ominous warning to title challenger Robert Whittaker.

On Twitter, the UFC middleweight champion recently posted a teaser for his UFC 271 fight camp vlog along with a cryptic message. 'The Last Stylebender' wrote:

"Look in my eyes [honey emoji]. Eat, sleep, train, repeat… It’s a plan that can’t be beat!! This will be worse than the first time."

Adesanya is currently gearing up for a second go-round against Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 on February 2022. The pair of Oceanian MMA superstars first met at UFC 243 in 2019. In their first encounter, Adesanya successfully unified the interim and undisputed UFC middleweight titles, knocking Whittaker out in the second round.

The Aucklander proceeded to defend the crown thrice against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori in the ensuing years. Meanwhile, Whittaker has since clawed his way back into the title picture by scoring three consecutive victories against 185-pound contenders Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum.

Watch Israel Adesanya's preparations for his rematch with Robert Whittaker:

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Israel Adesanya says Robert Whittaker has 'lost his cool' ahead of UFC 271

Israel Adesanya believes Robert Whittaker hasn't gotten over his loss since they first squared off years ago. With that in mind, Adesanya predicted that Whittaker would crumble under pressure against him once again. Appearing on an episode of THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas, Adesanya said:

"We’re putting the knuckles back on ol’ Bobby. One of my guys from my YouTube channel sent me a clip of him calling me a s*** person just recently. It’s already happening again, except he’s lost his cool. He talked about saying he lost his cool in the last fight. Nah – it’s too late. He’s lost his cool now. In the last fight leading up to it, he was trying to pretend like everything was all right – and you can verbatim find the interviews when I was saying, 'He’s not handling this well.'"

Check out Israel Adesanya's comments on Robert Whittaker:

One of the mellowest individuals on the UFC roster, Whittaker has been uncharacteristically taking shots at Adesanya over the past several months. Only time will tell if his new-found grit will serve his benefit or lead to another setback against Adesanya.