Well, I don't blame you for mistaking them, all of those Samoan guys are huge so I would say that any of them can have weight problems at any event. But they are also tough as nails. I always wondered that maybe that inherent toughness was preventing them from technique improvements and different fighting styles, or maybe the lack of wrestling that is holding them back from really breaking out in those top 5's of their divisions.
Let's add their stamina if they could last long inside while performing wrestling with their opponent, and we all know that wrestling is tiring for most guys that are big on their build that is why I think that would be most of their problem, and guys like these tend to finish the fight mostly on the 1st or 2nd round because they can not hold a lasting fight of stamina, pretty much the same goes with Derrick Lewis, and Francis Ngannou, but from Ngannou's last fight with Ciryl Gane I think that Francis Ngannou has improved with his stamina that could now last the distance,
Watching Vlog Series - Episode 1, I'm a bit disappointed that he's trying to downplay this title fight and treating it the same as his last 3 fights. It is certainly not and I hope that's just mind games. Maybe he's trying not to pressure himself too much which would affect his preparation.
This is what I am afraid of, he is kind of bored right now because there is no opponent good enough to take him down he recently said that his fight with Jan Blachowicz got him bored, I really think this is a red flag on Blachowicz part, or this might be an excuse because he got beaten up badly by Blachowicz, this is a big opportunity for him to have two belts at the same time, but Israel Adesanya is a learning fighter so I think this Asensanya VS Whittaker was the plan.
I think the solution for Whittaker to get his belt back is wrestling. Fighting against Adesanya in stance will be a copy-paste of their first fight. Adesanya is faster, has reach advantage, striking skills are better. Whittaker has got some achievements in Australia in wrestling championships.
Wrestling is the weakest point of Adesanya. As a kickboxer, if he is on the ground, he can not box or kick (sorry for that joke
). He should be taken down in the centre of octagon, otherwise he will fence to stand up and sneak (does this all the time).
Did you notice Andrei Arlovski vs. Jared Vanderaa in preliminary card? Think this is first time Arlovski is not in main card. He is getting old, less interested for people, yet still dangerous.
Whittaker May resulted with wrestling maybe that is his game plan that he is readying at least he is fired up because of this fight, I really want to see Whittaker try and make this fight more different than what happened with their 1st fight, and giving fans the excitement they all want,
all fighter that is full-on striking surely their weakness would be a guy that is full into wrestling, but if Robert Whittaker would result into this kind of method this could surely be new for him,