5 reasons why Robert Whittaker is more skilled than Israel Adesanya

#2. Robert Whittaker can fight going forwards and backwards

Israel Adesanya is a more effective (and indeed better) striker than Robert Whittaker. Thus far, the Nigerian's striking style has been enough to overcome everyone he's faced in the middleweight division, including Whittaker himself, twice. His signature fighting system consists of maintaining a long distance that is well-suited for his tall, lanky frame as Adesanya outsizes nearly every middleweight on the UFC roster.

From his preferred counter-striking distance, Adesanya is a master. Due to his length, the distance he maintains causes a lot of his opponents to kick ahead of themselves whenever they try targeting his legs with low kicks. Furthermore, from the outside, Adesanya can snipe at his foes with sharp jabs and hard low kicks. His low kicks are especially powerful, and he's able to land them without the risk of getting them checked due to his hip feints.

While many strikers feint with their hands, shoulders and even heads, Adesanya is unique. He uses hip feints, thrusting his hips to cause his opponents to overreact to the perceived threat of a hard low kick. If they take the bait, they open themselves up to punches or kicks over the top like the Nigerian's question mark kick.

Other times, opponents lunge forward, which is Adesanya's preference as he can simply pull back at the waist to lean away from their strikes while he twists and turns his torso into counter-hooks as his foes overextend.

Unfortunately, Adesanya is limited to being a counter-striker. If his opponents present a stylistic challenge, he does not vary his approach, as against Yoel Romero, Adesanya merely stuck to low kicking him, using an easy-to-land and low-score strike. Meanwhile, Whittaker is capable of adapting his striking regardless of his opponent's approach, fighting as both a pressure fighter (front-foot) and counter-fighter (backfoot) when needed.

Against Yoel Romero, Whittaker fought as a counter-puncher, while his recent matchup with Vettori saw him pressure the Italian. Furthermore, 'The Reaper' altered his usual high-volume striking into stifling power shots to strip Vettori of his range as every time 'The Italian Dream' stepped forward, he became wary of fully committing to his strikes. Typically, the Australian enjoys fighting from mid-range, allowing him to stutter-step into a crisp boxing combination.

Two of Whittaker's nuclear options are his left hook and right high kick. His setups are varied. For his left hook, he often throws it as a counter to his opponent's counter. After throwing a right cross to bait his opponent's counter, Whittaker ducks under their blow before emerging from their open side with a thunderous left hook. Other setups include landing front kicks to the midsection to straighten his opponent's posture.

After enough kicks, his opponents will likely try to catch or parry any subsequent ones. However, as their hands drop low to catch a kick, a left hook lands over the top. Lastly, 'The Reaper' uses the threat of his jab-right cross combination to dupe opponents into slipping on the outside of his right cross—and into the path of a right high kick.

Against foes who don't oblige, Robert Whittaker deliberately misses his right cross before turning his palm inward and shoving his foe's head into the kick.

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#1. Robert Whittaker is capable of adjusting mid-fight

Not many fighters are capable of adjusting mid-fight. The months that mixed martial artists spend fine-tuning their bodies and reactions to their gameplans are difficult to overcome. Unfortunately, due to the sheer chaos present in many bouts, all fighters at some point encounter a matchup that does not transpire as their coaches predicted.

Henry Cejudo and Demetrious Johnson are two fighters capable of making such adjustments. Israel Adesanya cannot as he does not deviate from his primary approach even if the bout is much closer than he'd like. Whittaker, however, adjusts when needed. Against Romero, for example, Whittaker clearly did not expect his foe to be fast enough to counter his blitzes as 'The Reaper' is typically faster than his opponents.

To avoid being knocked unconscious, Whittaker began to fake his entries, causing Romero to anticipate punches that never came as the Australian leapt into hard side kicks targeting his lead knee at an angle. This was done in an effort to stifle Romero's explosiveness and prevent his counterpunches from being thrown while also rendering him a more stationary target.

Additionally, against Israel Adesanya himself, Robert Whittaker approached their rematch at UFC 271 with more caution. However, after realizing that striking alone would not be successful, Whittaker deviated from his primary gameplan by implementing takedowns, ultimately using his wrestling to set up his strikes and vice versa.