UFC President Dana White recently revealed that Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz will meet next after stating that Robert Whittaker did not want to fight Adesanya for a second time.
Whittaker tells a different story that White, saying that the UFC never reached out for a potential rematch with Adesanya.
“They never reached out to me – not once,” Whittaker said to MMA Junkie. “It wasn’t so much of a twist of Izzy fighting Jan. I can see why they would want to do that, why Izzy would want to do that, why the UFC would want it. I can see that happening. It’s more the twist or how he took my words. Either he misinterpreted it or twisted it a little bit. That one took me for a little bit of a ride. But like I said, my timeline stands. That is the fight that I’ve earned.”
Adesanya and Whittaker first met at UFC 243, where Adesanya defeated Whittaker to win the middleweight crown. The former champion is a little annoyed by how things were handled, but Whittaker knows he can’t change anything right now.
“With the twist on words a little bit, it was confusing,” Whittaker said. “It was a little annoying, but it is what it is. Can’t change anything now. … It’s not something I can be upset about, because it is what it is. I’m more confused. That would be the biggest emotion I have right now – like, confused. I wish the open dialogue was there, I wish the communication was there because I’m pretty easy to work with. What’s been done has been done. My timeline stands, I’m going to look at fighting Izzy whether it’s at light heavyweight or middleweight, early next year. We’ll have to see how the dice roll.”
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