Whittaker: Adesanya ‘matches up better’ for me than Gastelum

Robert Whittaker prefers a fight against Israel Adesanya over Kelvin Gastelum.

Because of the uncertainty around Robert Whittaker’s return date, the UFC decided to take action. Their decision ended with an interim middleweight title fight booking between Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 in April.

Whittaker actually welcomes the idea of possibly facing one of the two challengers, but if it were up to him, he would prefer to face “The Last Stylebender.”

“I think, stylistically for us, Adesanya matches up better for me. I think I can get inside his guard and I can put heat on him,” Whittaker said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN on Monday (transcript by BJPenn.com). I think Gastelum is a hard fight because he’s a tough guy with a thick head and he would have just put the pressure on, put the pace on.

“I think Adesanya doesn’t like pacing like that in that sort of way, I think he would try and play a distance game with me which I’m very happy to do, but I’m very quick and I surprise a lot of people with that.”

“That’s not an easier fight, wrong word. It’s a better fight for me.”

Whittaker also shared his thoughts about Adesanya’s recent win against Anderson Silva at UFC 234.

“I wasn’t impressed with his performance against Anderson,” Whittaker said of Adesanya. “If anything, I was impressed with Anderson’s performance against Adesanya. Anderson is not in his heyday anymore. He’s easily on his way out. Everyone can see that. And for Anderson to put up such a good fight.

“You know, I gave Anderson that second round. For him to put up such a good fight against a dude who’s on a tear with such a high-level striking skill-set, and is running through people, I thought props to Anderson.

“Adesanya’s very good. Don’t get me wrong,” he added. “I just think he’s trying to build a hype train that doesn’t exist.”

According to his manager Titus Day, Whittaker is expected to be back and fully recovered within the next six months.