Main Event<\/a> when asked for his reaction to Pyfer beating Adesanya. \u201cBut I think ultimately one of the shots that landed in that last sequence hurt him to a degree where he kind of went on autopilot and took the fight into a range and into a mess that Pyfer really is good at, he loves being in. I think one of the shots is what put Izzy into that autopilot kind of zone where he didn\u2019t make the most accurate reads. He\u2019s much better at distance.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is what it is. I think he needs to find that hunger. It\u2019s easy to say, it\u2019s just he may be a little comfortable at the moment. He\u2019s got money, he\u2019s reached the top of the mountain, he\u2019s done everything, he\u2019s ticked every box. What is there he needs to achieve anymore? He needs to find that. He needs to find that drive to continue doing what he\u2019s doing, to continue to light that fire, that hunger, and that love for the game, so I don\u2019t think it was a bad thing. We all learn from our losses and I think this is a good point for him to just make those decisions and work out where he needs to go and what he wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adesanya, who turns 37 in July, gave no indication he plans to retire anytime soon, even without any clear path to title contention. He has twice held UFC gold at 185 pounds and was near the top of the pound-for-pound charts for years, so from the outside looking in, Adesanya\u2019s motivation to keep competing.<\/p>\n
Whatever his plans are, Whittaker is in support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wants to press on, I\u2019m 100 percent with him,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cI love working with him and I\u2019d love to see his journey continue and I\u2019d love to see him get back up there.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what\u2019s crazy? I saw in the rankings, we were side by side again, which is something I haven\u2019t seen for a while. I\u2019d love to be a part of that, but ultimately I want to see him just get that love for the game, get that love for the craft, and love for contact and conflict back. Find the drive. A lot of guys that have reached the top of the mountain need to reassess their drives, otherwise it\u2019s really hard for them to come back to where they were.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whittaker and Adesanya have formed a partnership in recent years, with Whittaker, who fights out of Australia, becoming a frequent visitor to Adesanya\u2019s City Kickboxing Gym in New Zealand. Right now, the team is helping Whittaker prepare for a move up to 205 pounds, with new UFC light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg and undefeated prospect Navajo Stirling doing their part to welcome \u201cThe Reaper\u201d to the division.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kicked off this year at CKB,\u201d Whittaker sai.d \u201cI jumped over the gap to New Zealand and spent some time with Izzy and Carlos and the boys and Navajo, great tall bodies, just getting used to the hype difference that I\u2019ve worked with in the past. So it was great. They were so receptive of me and honestly I can\u2019t wait to go back. We have a really good working relationship right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of now, Whittaker doesn\u2019t have an opponent set for his light heavyweight debut, though he shot down the rumor that it is former light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Whittaker knows Israel Adesanya as well as anyone, and knows what it takes for him to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-601713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}