"I baptized you" - Israel Adesanya trolls "son" Robert Whittaker on the occasion of Father's Day

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya gave Robert Whittaker a Father's Day surprise. The smack-talking fighter from New Zealand trolled his "son" on Twitter in response to the top-ranked middleweight's recent comments.

Robert Whittaker recently said in an interview that the champion isn't as good as he thinks he is. Speaking to dailytelegraph.com.au, 'The Reaper' said:

“He’s definitely not a God and not even as good as he thinks he is."

The Kiwi fighter returned fire by posting a montage of what took place the last time Whittaker criticized Adesanya, with a message that read, "Happy Father's Day son."

“Aaaahh shit, here we go again.” 🙄 pic.twitter.com/1egZAV3a90

— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) June 21, 2021

Moments later, Adesanya sent out another tweet, addressing Whittaker's "God" comment. 'The Last Stylebender' wrote:

"I might not be a god to you, but I baptized you."

I might not be a god to you, but I baptized you #Jezus

— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) June 21, 2021

This isn't the first time Adesanya has referred to his rival as his son. Shortly after Robert Whittaker's dominant win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Vegas 24, Adesanya hopped on Twitter to send a snide congratulatory message.

Good job my son.

— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) April 18, 2021

Israel Adesanya calls out Robert Whittaker

It's not often that a fighter calls for a rematch against an opponent he already defeated. But that's exactly what Israel Adesanya did after successfully defending his title against Marvin Vettori in the main event of UFC 263.

Joe Rogan asked Adesanya who he wanted to fight next during the post-fight interview. Israel Adesanya replied:

"Well you know, the old mozzie, my archnemesis, what's his name? Whittaker. 'Bobby Knuckles'. I knocked him out twice [last fight]. I don't know what the f*** is gonna happen with this COVID s*** but we need to run that back in Auckland. We need to run it back in my territory this time. I'll tell you what it is, you don't get to decide; I get to decide, 'cause why? I'm the motherf***ing king."

Check out the full interview below:

What happened when Israel Adesanya fought Robert Whittaker for the first time?

Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker initially crossed paths in a middleweight championship unification bout at UFC 243 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

Proving too elusive on the feet, Adesanya sent Whittaker crashing into the mat with a perfectly-timed counterpunch in the closing moments of round one. However, the Australian survived the round as the clock expired before Adesanya could land the finishing blow.

The Nigerian native got the job done in the second round, catching Whittaker with a sneaky right uppercut during a wild exchange of punches. 'The Last Stylebender' earned a TKO victory to become the undisputed UFC middleweight champion.