Robert Whittaker reveals what made him spar with Israel Adesanya and his initial reaction to the idea of training at City Kickboxing

Robert Whittaker recently detailed his experience sparring with Israel Adesanya at City Kickboxing. He clarified that his team's lack of members was the primary reason he sparred at Adesanya's gym.

In a video posted on Adesanya's YouTube channel, Whittaker sparred with the former champion at City Kickboxing in New Zealand, where other UFC fighters such as Dan Hooker, Kai Kara-France and Carlos Ulberg train.

Whittaker recently appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show and talked about what made him train with Adesanya. 'The Reaper' revealed that, with his teammate at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Smeaton Grange gym, UFC middleweight Jacob Malkoun, injured, and a few other members moving on with their lives, he decided to train at City Kickboxing.

''So I was sitting down with my team, with Jacob [Malkoun] suffering an injury, he was and a few my other teammates have retired or gone different paths, we were just lacking in bodies so I sat down with my coaches and we kind of hashing out what the plan would be moving forward and we were like, we could bring guys here, we could do this, we could do that and then we started looking at global...We remembered City Kickboxing...Izzy's there, Carlos is there, Hooker is there, they have high level guys.''

Whittaker also shared his reaction to his coach Alex Prates' decision to train in New Zealand, saying:

''It was so left field for me because I was so locked into my head space of being rivals and just I didn't even think about it...I couldn't work it out. I was so blinded to that possibility that is City Kickboxing.''

Check out Robert Whittaker's comments below:

Despite being rivals at one point in their careers and fighting twice, Whittaker expressed his admiration for Adesanya in his conversation with the MMA journalist.

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Robert Whittaker gives update on his injury suffered at UFC 308

In his most recent octagon outing at UFC 308, Robert Whittaker was submitted by Khamzat Chimaev in the opening round with a tight rear-naked choke, which injured Whittaker's jaw in the process, dislocating his teeth.

In the aforementioned interview with Ariel Helwani, Whittaker opened up about his recovery process, saying:

''I’m good. The healing process was much faster than I think everybody expected...It was seamless, and I was back in the gym four weeks after.”

Check out Robert Whittaker's comments below: