Earlier this month, in the main event of the UFC’s latest trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, Gegard Mousasi scored a beautiful first-round win over an old foil in Uriah Hall. This win pushed Mousasi up to the outer edges of middleweight title contention.
One week after Mousasi’s big Belfast win, Robert Whittaker scored a first-round win of his own over the streaking Derek Brunson. With this win, the young Whittaker found himself almost neck-and-neck with Mousasi in the UFC middleweight rankings.
Given their coinciding wins, and similar position in the divisional rankings, buzz about a potential Mousasi vs. Whittaker showdown has recently begun to surface. In a recent interview with Peter Carroll of Fightland, Mousasi weighed in on this prospective showdown, and apparently, it’s one he would be up for.
“I think Whittaker is definitely a good fight for me at the moment,” Mousasi said.
“He’s on a good winning streak at the moment,” he continued. “UFC are probably going to do Rockhold versus ‘Jacare’ again, and that will probably determine who will be the next guy to fight for the title.”
“Those guys are ahead of me. I’m just below that. I feel like I’m in the same place as Whittaker, let’s say. If we fought each other that would show who would be the next guy in line for the title shot too. I think that’s how UFC would see it. It’s definitely a fight that makes sense for me.”
“There are other fights that make sense for me too—Luke Rockhold, Nick Diaz, Anderson Silva—those guys always make sense to me,” Mousasi added. “Whittaker definitely makes sense for me now, though. He’s coming off a knockout win and he is becoming a contender in the division. It’s definitely a fight I would say yes to.”
While Mousasi is admittedly interested in a potential fight with Whittaker, he does not think it would be a particularly difficult fight.
“If I fought Whittaker I would be a huge favorite,” he explained. “I believe I’m better everywhere and I would prove that if we fought.”
“Whittaker is a very composed guy as he showed in Melbourne last weekend. He really showed us that he knows what he’s doing against Brunson. He showed us that he is a lot more experienced than people give him credit for,” explained Mousasi.
““Even with all of that, I think if I fought him I would beat him easily,” he continued.
Would you be interested in a potential Mousasi vs. Whittaker fight? If the pair did duke it out, who do you think would come out on top? Sound off, PENN Nation!