After being dominated by Israel Adesanya in their 2019 meeting, Robert Whittaker entered UFC 271 on Saturday night knowing he had a very difficult puzzle to solve if he wanted to regain the middleweight championship. Whittaker was largely up to the challenge, came up short as Adesanya retained the title via unanimous decision in a highly competitive fight.
Adesanya started off red hot, buzzing Whittaker with stinging shots and scoring a knockdown in the first round. The opening frame left Whittaker looking rattled on his stool in the corner before Round 2. As the fight looked like it would quickly get out of hand for Whittaker and possibly end in a replay of the second-round TKO from the pair’s UFC 243 clash, Whittaker managed to regain his confidence in Round 2, landing punches and scoring with a takedown to have his first truly positive moments in his rivalry with the champion.
Whittaker would continue to try to mix in wrestling throughout the remainder of the fight, occasionally picking moments to engage in grappling, though he was never able to hold Adesanya down with any measurable success. The closest the grappling attack came to proving fruitful came in Round 4, with Whittaker able to briefly take Adesanya’s back as the champion scrambled to his feet after another brief Whittaker takedown. Adesanya was able to avoid any submission danger or strikes in the briefly-dangerous position, however, and was quickly back to his preferred striking distance.
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Adesanya’s ability to maintain distance was key to his victory. In using his significant reach advantage, Adesanya picked away at Whittaker with lightning-fast kicks to the legs and body, as well as with long jabs and straights that forced Whittaker to try to find ways to get inside and unload with strikes.
Despite Whittaker making most of the rounds competitive after his disastrous opening frame, Adesanya had clearly done enough to deserve the decision victory, which he received by official scores of 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46.
“I knew he was going to bring everything because last time I took everything away from him,” Adesanya said after the win. “He had nothing to lose. But, like I said, I’m the champ, you have to come and get it.”
The win over Whittaker was Adesanya’s fourth defense of the middleweight championship since winning the belt in the first meeting with Whittaker.
For Whittaker, who had a three-fight winning streak snapped, the loss was a tough pill to swallow.
“Yeah, I did [think I won the fight],” Whittaker said. “I know I started off rocky in the first round but I felt like I took every one after that. It is what it is. Like they say, don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. I’m gutted. I’m gutted. I thought I did enough.”
As for the next defense of his championship, Adesanya stated he had a date and opponent in mind, singling out Jared Cannonier, who’d scored a huge knockout victory over Derek Anderson on the undercard of the event.
“I know June doesn’t have a pay-per-view yet,” Adesanya said. “But, like I said, I’m the new dog in the yard and I’m the big dog in the yard. I know the other dog, Jared Cannonier, did some work tonight. Yeah, I’m pissing in this cage in June. Watch me.”
CBS Sports was with you the entire way on Saturday bringing you all the results and highlights from the UFC 271 below.
UFC 271 card and results
- Israel Adesanya (c) def. Robert Whittaker via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46)
- Tai Tuivasa def. Derrick Lewis via second-round TKO (punches)
- Jared Cannonier def. Derek Brunson via second-round TKO (punches)
- Renato Moicano def. Alexander Hernandez via second-round submission (rear naked choke)
- Bobby Green def. Nasrat Haqparast via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Andrei Arlovski def. Jared Vanderaa via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Casey O’Neill def. Roxanne Modafferi via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Kyler Phillips def. Marcelo Rojo via third-round submission (arm bar)
- Carlos Ulberg def. Fabio Cherant via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ronnie Lawrence def. Mana Martinez via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-28)
- Jacob Malkoun def. AJ Dobson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Douglas Silva De Andrade def. Sergey Morozov via second-round submission (rear naked choke)
- Jeremiah Wells def. Mike Diamond via first-round submission (rear naked choke)
- Maxim Grishin def. William Knight via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism