Just saw a headline going around, it seems that the Adesanya / Whittaker scrap is set to take place on February 12th 2022. Not bad, it will give both fighters some much-deserved time to get into this as they should, as rested and as healed as possible. I can only imagine what tempo that must be, to be on the top of the division for that amount of time. Can't really speculate on the outcome, it's a bit too early for that.
I'm a fan of Adesanya so a slight bias, but I also have tremendous respect for Whittaker. This is easily the most anticipated fight throughout the whole UFC for me. I can't think of anyone else that I would be more hyped to be fighting each other. It's probably seconded by Conor vs Khabib a few years ago, but other than that I actually believe Whittaker has what it takes to cause an upset, and Adesanya always puts on a show.
I've heard it numerous times, I listen to a lot of podcasts surrounding the UFC, so I can't remember exactly which one, but they've alluded to several dagestan fighters being the next Khabib. Luckily, their other content is entertaining.
From what I can gather this particular fighter doesn't even have the style that Khabib has, which is basically executing basic moves to absolute perfection, which is rare even at an elite level competition.