{"id":366579,"date":"2020-11-03T05:48:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T13:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=366579"},"modified":"2020-11-03T05:48:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T13:48:53","slug":"robert-whittaker-refutes-dana-whites-claim-says-hes-willing-to-fight-israel-adesanya-at-light-heavyweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-refutes-dana-whites-claim-says-hes-willing-to-fight-israel-adesanya-at-light-heavyweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Whittaker refutes Dana White\u2019s claim, says he\u2019s willing to fight Israel Adesanya at light heavyweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker has questioned Dana White’s claim that he doesn’t want to fight Israel Adesanya.<\/p>\n

Whittaker, the former champion lost his title<\/a> to “The Last Stylebender” last October, but since then, he’s been able to bounce back in style with decision wins over fellow contenders Darren Till and Jared Cannonier. It seemed as if he was destined to square off with Adesanya once again in a rematch, but White recently claimed that “The Reaper” turned the bout down.<\/p>\n

During a recent interview with MMA Junkie<\/a>, Whittaker decided to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly think he took a little twist to what I said,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cI never said I don\u2019t want to fight Izzy. That\u2019s not something I said. I did not say that. I\u2019m looking to fight March, April next year. I would like to fight Izzy. If Izzy\u2019s moving up to fight Jan, then I\u2019ll move up and fight him there if he gets the win. I want that fight. I do want that fight. We just had to work it into that timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no control on what the UFC\u2019s going to do or what Izzy\u2019s going to do, but whether he\u2019s here at middleweight or up at light heavyweight, I\u2019ll take the fight him,” Whittaker added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey never reached out to me \u2014 not once,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much of a twist of Izzy fighting Jan. I can see why they would want to do that, why Izzy would want to do that, why the UFC would want it. I can see that happening. It\u2019s more the twist or how he took my words. Either he misinterpreted it or twisted it a little bit. That one took me for a little bit of a ride. But like I said, my timeline stands. That is the fight that I\u2019ve earned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does a rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker interest you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker has questioned Dana White’s claim that he doesn’t want to fight Israel Adesanya. Whittaker, the former champion lost his title to “The Last Stylebender” last October, but since then, he’s been able to bounce back in style with decision wins over fellow contenders Darren Till and Jared Cannonier. It seemed as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54478,"featured_media":319125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10112,39449,10582,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Whittaker refutes Dana White\u2019s claim, says he\u2019s willing to fight Israel Adesanya at light heavyweight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has questioned Dana White's claim that he doesn't want to fight Israel Adesanya.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-refutes-dana-whites-claim-says-hes-willing-to-fight-israel-adesanya-at-light-heavyweight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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