Former champion Robert Whittaker gets his shot at winning back the title at UFC 271.
Whittaker will challenge Israel Adesanya next weekend for the belt live from Houston.
The Australian and New Zealand fighters will take their rivalry to Texas. And while they don’t agree on everything, Whittaker views it differently this time around.
“This one has a completely different tone,” said Whittaker, during an interview with Submission Radio. “I feel like there’s an underlying sense of mutual respect. We’re both the two of the best in the game. He’s the champion and I’m number one, and we’ve ran through everybody else, and I think there’s a certain level of mutual respect that comes from that.
“And I think the fact that the New Zealand/Australia rivalry isn’t so much getting thrown in everybody’s faces here, or understanding that this is Australian and New Zealand taking over the world sort of thing. And in saying that, we’re not mates. Far from it. We’re not mates.
“But I just don’t think because this time the media, where we’re fighting in Houston, and just the way the media is not angling that rivalry and that stuff, the fight isn’t personal. I feel like for a lot of different reasons, the fight just got led into that personal sort of space, that first fight.
“And because of it, it sucked me in, if you would. Especially, because like I said, you guys mentioned it earlier on, is that like my head wasn’t in the right place. So not having my head in the right place, and then all the media’s effects on it, and then making it personal on top of that, it just swept me away into like a little bit of a Whirlpool.
“And then leaving the game and then working out my why’s and wants and who I am and having confidence now in who I am, it’s a much better place.”
