UFC 271: Whittaker vs Adesanya Preview
The UFC will be making another stop at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on Saturday February 12 for UFC 271. The card’s main event will be a rematch for the middleweight title between champion Israel Adesanya and former champion #1 contender Robert Whittaker.
The two first faced off at UFC 243 for the title with Adesanya winning in dominant fashion by second round KO. Since then, Adesanya has been one of the most dominant champions in the UFC and Whittaker has had to claw his way back to a well deserved title shot.
Since defeating Whittaker for the belt, Adesanya has defended the title three times with wins over Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori. Adesanya has proven to be a fan-favorite with his flashy style in and out of the octagon. He is one of the most dangerous and technical strikers in the UFC and no middleweight has been able to crack the code.
The 32-year-old New Zealander has made it clear what has been motivating him leading up to this fight. “That’s not been the case this time (complacency after UFC 243 win),” said Adesanya. “It’s actually made me more motivated to do it again and do it more decisively, if that’s even possible, which it is. That’s what my motivation is for this fight, that’s what got me up for this fight, was to do it again, and (in a) more devastating fashion.”
Many MMA pundits seem to think that Whittaker will make the rematch a tougher fight on Adesanya, however the champion’s head coach Eugene Bareman hopes for a different outcome in this fight. “People aren’t going to agree with me, but the ultimate thing you can do in fight sports, I think, is not a knockout, it’s a whitewash,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “What I would like to happen is just a five-round whitewash, where there is no stoppage this time, but like every round there’s just accumulative, accumulative, accumulative damage and it just leaves no doubt, it just leaves no doubt. It’s just 25 minutes of mastery.”
Prior to losing to Adesanya, Whittaker was on a nine-fight winning streak. Since losing the title, he has won three dominant performances over top contenders Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum.
The former champion believes he is in the right place mentally heading into this fight. “I’ve been in this game a long time and with that comes change and evolution,” Whittaker told Yahoo Sports. “Sometimes, the process isn’t clean and I’m only human at the end of the day. That was the catalyst I needed to happen for me to make some changes to get myself better. And I’m glad it happened because I certainly have come out better.”
The 31-year-old New Zealand native went on to say, “I was burnt out and I was really dragging my feet to the [practice] sessions,” Whittaker said. “I was very reluctant to get into the training sessions or want to do more. The signs of burnout were there. I just wasn’t aware enough of it to see it.”
Aside from his latest three victories, Whittaker has key wins in his career over Yoel Romero (twice), Jacare Souza, Derek Brunson, Uriah Hall and Brad Tavares. A win on Saturday would likely make for a trilogy fight with Adesanya which seems like the best thing for the division right now. If Whittaker loses, the road back to a third title shot will not be impossible, but it will incredibly difficult.
The co-main event of the evening will have potential title implications in the heavyweight division. Houston native and #3 ranked Derrick Lewis will fight hard hitting Australian #11 Tai Tuivasa.
37-year-old Lewis is coming off a first round KO of Chirs Daukaus in December where he broke the UFC record for most knockout wins with 13. The win was his fifth out of his last six fights with the only loss coming last August in an interim title fight to Ciryl Gane in Houston. Not only will Lewis be trying to break his own record, but the fan favorite will also be trying to redeem himself in front of his hometown crowd.
Lewis has key victories in his storied career over Curtis Blaydes, Alexey Oleynik, Blagoy Ivanov, Alexander Volkov, Franciss Ngannou, Marcin Tybura, Travis Browne and Roy Nelson.
Tuivasa is coming off four straight wins having most recently defeated Augusto Sakai by second round KO in December. He has rebounded well since losing thee straight fights in 2018 and 2019, those coming after starting his career 9-0.
Like Lewis, Tuivasa has become a fan-favorite with his power punching and his post-victory antics. Aside from Sakai, the 28-year-old has key victories over Greg Hardy, Stefan Struve and Andrei Arlovski.
The rest of the main card:
Middleweight - #3 Jared Cannonier vs. #4 Derek Brunson
Bantamweight - Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo
Lightweight - Bobby Green vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Preliminary Card:
Heavyweight - Andrei Arlovski vs. Jared Vanderaa
Women's Flyweight - #12 Roxanne Modafferi vs. #15 Casey O'Neill
Flyweight -#4 Alex Perez vs. #9 Matt Schnell
Light Heavyweight - William Knight vs. Maxim Grishin
Early Prelims:
Bantamweight - Leomana Martinez vs. Ronnie Lawrence
Lightweight - Alexander Hernandez vs. Renato Moicano
Light Heavyweight - Carlos Ulberg vs. Fabio Cherant
Middleweight - A.J. Dobson vs. Jacob Malkoun
Bantamweight - Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Sergey Morozov
Welterweight - Jeremiah Wells vs. Mike Mathetha
