Following his dominant three-round display against Marvin Vettori at UFC Paris last weekend, Robert Whittaker claimed to be the 'most dangerous' athlete in the 185lb division, and light heavyweight Anthony Smith has openly agreed.
Since making his move to middleweight permanent, 'The Reaper' has become a powerful figure within the division, winning 12 of his 14 fights in the weight class. He has only ever lost to the current champion, Israel Adesanya. Putting on a clinic over 15-minutes at UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Tuivasa proved where his level is at.
While discussing the comments with Michael Bisping on their popular podcast, Anthony Smith agreed with Whittaker, insisting that the 31-year-old is more "well-rounded" and has "more tools" than anybody else in his division.
"I don't disagree. I think that Izzy's [Israel Adesanya's] the more effective fighter between those two... The link, the reach, the defensive kind of counter style of Izzy... Robert's always kind of struggled with tall, rangy kind of [fighters]... In that matchup Izzy's more effective, [but] the more technical, the more well-rounded, the guy that has more weapons and more tools [is] one hundred percent, without a doubt, is Robert Whittaker... He's [Adesanya's] very good at what he does, [but] Robert is very good at a lot of different things."
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Israel Adesanya is scheduled to face an old foe when he steps into the octagon to make his sixth defense of the middleweight title at UFC 281. Standing across the cage from him will be former Glory light heavyweight champion and heavy-handed Brazilian Alex Pereira.
Check out what Anthony Smith and Michael Bisping had to say about Whittaker's comments in the video below.
Will we ever see Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker 3?
Despite clearly being the 2nd best middleweight in the UFC, Robert Whittaker has already suffered two losses to Israel Adesanya, so a third fight between the two may not be in the best interest of the UFC.
The Australian finds himself in a tough situation and must now make a decision. He could take a fight against Paulo Costa, rematch a fighter he's already beaten in the top 5 of the division, or healthily put on the weight and fight at light heavyweight as he has teased in the past.
At this point in time, a rematch between the two both does and doesn't make sense, but if he keeps beating other high-ranked opponents, it will be hard to deny him a shot.