Midnight Mania! Robert Whittaker denies Dana White’s claim, will chase Israel Adesanya to Light Heavyweight

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Following Robert Whittaker’s decisive victory over Jared Cannonier at UFC 254, Whittaker appeared to be next-in-line for the Middleweight title. Dana White claimed that a rematch made perception, and Whittaker expressed his interested in dealing with Israel Adesanya yet again all over March right after paying out the holiday getaway year with his family members.

On the other hand, the marketing chose to go in a different path. Alternatively than have Adesanya defend his title all over again, he’ll head up to 205 lbs. and attempt to claim double champ standing by having out Jan Blachowicz.

Which is a good battle, but in the approach, White claimed that Whittaker does not want the Adesanya rematch at all.

“I certainly imagine he took a very little twist to what I stated,” Whittaker informed MMA Junkie. “I hardly ever stated I really don’t want to combat Izzy. That is not some thing I explained. I did not say that. I’m hunting to fight March, April upcoming yr. I would like to struggle Izzy. If Izzy’s transferring up to fight Jan, then I’ll go up and battle him there if he receives the get. I want that struggle. I do want that fight. We just had to do the job it into that timeline.

“I have no management on what the UFC’s going to do or what Izzy’s likely to do, but irrespective of whether he’s here at middleweight or up at mild heavyweight, I’ll get the battle him.”

Whittaker is not upset with UFC going in an additional direction, but his intention stays the very same in dealing with Adesanya once again and retaking the title. Uninterested in combating down the rankings a third straight time, Whittaker is a little bit shocked he was under no circumstances contacted.

“They by no means reached out to me – not when,” Whittaker continued. “It was not so significantly of a twist of Izzy battling 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 occurring. It’s much more the twist or how he took my words. Either he misinterpreted it or twisted it a minimal bit. That one particular took me for a tiny little bit of a trip. But like I mentioned, my timeline stands. That is the battle that I have attained.”

Insomnia

Conor McGregor took thoughts on Twitter more than the weekend, so listed here are some highlights!

Is Alistair Overeem vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik 2 the struggle to make? It appears like 1 of the only possibilities.

Even in a division like women’s Flyweight, matchmaking moves quick!

Jonathan Haggerty tears up a mitt session:

“The Mountain” acquired some MMA instruction in with “El Guapo” … and made the previous Heavyweight champ search small!

The two Glover Teixeira and Thiago Santos swing for the complete. This week’s key party is likely to be enjoyable!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Semyonov took some pictures to uncover the submission from his back again.

Yup, that is a quite excellent traveling knee!

Yurusov did a definitely good position of keeping a pinch and downward force with his legs when preventing the grip. His opponent was definitely freaking out still barely moved.

Random Land

A bit of aid (for an empty barbell) from man’s finest friend:

Midnight Music: The movie of the first-ever reside effectiveness of “Sympathy For The Devil” was just unveiled on the web. That is amazing on its personal, but eagle-eyed readers might be aware some legends in the crowd as well.

Sleep nicely Maniacs! A lot more martial arts insanity is generally on the way.