Israel Adesanya has shown himself to be one of the UFC’s most shrewd trash talkers in his short career, and the New Zealander was not short of taunts ahead of his fight against Australia’s Robert Whittaker.
The pair are set to face off for the second time in their careers at UFC 271 in Houston this weekend and Adesanya made sure to rub his win over Whittaker at UFC 243 in the Aussie’s face.
Adesanya arrived at the Toyota Center for the press conference with Whittaker wearing a chain that had a display screen replaying the moment he knocked Whittaker out at UFC 243 on a loop.
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“It’s on replay and it just shows the moment over and over and over and over and over again,” the Kiwi star said when asked about the chain.
“But this weekend I’m looking to create another moment so, yeah, this is fun.
“After beating them, you’re in their head. I was there already anyway, but you’re already in their head.
“Once you beat them, the way I did it last time, you can’t get over that … I still have properties in there rent free.”
Despite Adesanya’s taunts, Whittaker responded with class and could only laugh when asked about the chain immediately after.
“He beat me the first time, he’s got bragging rights. What do I do? If I won the first time I’d be stomping around as well. It’s a cool necklace,” he said.
Adesanya also suggested that he has handled the pressure of being the defending champion much better than Whittaker did prior to UFC 243.
“Pressure makes diamonds and I’m used to that. You see me, I’m shining right now,” he said.
“I said it before we fought last time because I could feel it … you could see the moment weighing on him, and he was denying it the whole time, obviously he had to, he couldn’t tell me, ‘Yeah, I’m feeling the pressure, bro. F–king hell this is crazy’.
“Pressure is a really acquired taste.”
Whittaker admitted that he’d had a poor lead-up to the pair’s previous meeting, but said the difference between his preparation for this fight and the last was “night and day”.
“I think I was just venting on him to be honest,” Whittaker said of the first lead-up.
“I was feeling the pressure from a lot of different avenues and I wasn’t happy with a lot of different things and I was just angling it towards him to be honest.
“But I’ve let all that go, I’m pretty cool now, I’m quite happy with everything.
“I’m enjoying this one … it’s nice and relaxed. It’s chilled.”
Whittaker and Adesanya will face off for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 271 on Sunday afternoon AEDT.