UFC 281: Robert Whittaker wants Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira to hurt each other so bad at UFC 281 that "they never come back the same"

Israel Adesanya is gearing up to fight former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in a highly anticipated championship fight. This will be the first time the two rivals will be facing each other in an MMA matchup. They have fought on two previous occasions in kickboxing, with Pereira besting Adesanya both times. Robert Whittaker has taken no side and wants both of them to "hurt each other extremely badly."

Speaking in a recent interview with mainevent on YouTube, Whittaker was asked if he was rooting for anyone in the UFC 281 headliner. He responded:

"Absolutely not. I hope they both hurt each other extremely badly. I hope they fight so hard and hurt each other so badly that they never come back the same."

The No.1-ranked middleweight also laid out his thoughts on how he thinks the fight will go and how the difference in glove size can affect the outcome:

"They fought each other multiple times but in bigger gloves. Both landing strikes on each other and tagging each other, how does the small gloves affect that? If they can land the shots like they did in kickboxing... The smaller gloves make the biggest difference."

Watch Robert Whittaker's interview below:

Whittaker has faced Adesanya twice before and came up short both times against the reigning middleweight champion.

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Israel Adesanya names potential future opponents after UFC 281

As Israel Adesanya prepares to defend his title for the sixth time inside the octagon, he has some possible future opponents in mind.

On a recent episode of BS W/ Jake Paul, 'The Last Stylebender' stated his intentions to fight Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Strickland and Gregory Rodrigues:

"The hillbilly, [Sean] Strickland. I just wanna whoop his a**. I really just wanna whoop his a**. A good fighter I wanna fight is 'Robocop' [Gregory Rodrigues]... He's solid, he's a good fighter. No beef, no nothing, I just think he's gonna come up to the top and I'd like to test myself against a guy like that."

Adesanya continued:

"Even Khamzat, if he does well. [Leon Edwards'] the champ now, but you gotta fight the top of the top at welterweight first. He [Chimaev] does well, he gets the belt, why not? I love testing myself against people like that... The story's still being written. Anybody can get it, man, woman or child. If you can crawl, we can brawl."

Watch Israel Adesanya's full interview below:

Israel Adesanya faces Alex Pereira next at UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The two former kickboxing rivals will go head-to-head for the first time in an MMA bout with the middleweight championship on the line.