Whittaker once again starts his path back to the middleweight
title. After starting his career at welterweight and quickly
hitting a ceiling, “The Reaper” was an absolute revelation upon
moving up to 185 pounds in 2014. With his additional speed and
cardio, Whittaker’s boxing popped and everything clicked into
place, making him at first a knockout artist and then a title
contender. Once Whittaker showed off his immensely improved
wrestling chops in a 2017 win over Ronaldo
Souza, it was clear that his next fight should be for a title;
and within months, he had beaten Yoel Romero
in an absolute war to become the UFC’s interim champion at 185
pounds. Whittaker was then promoted to undisputed champ with the
second retirement of Georges St.
Pierre, but any attempts for him to return to Australia as a
conquering hero seemed absolutely cursed. A slated title defense in
2018 against Luke
Rockhold was scrapped due to a severe staph infection in
Whittaker’s stomach, and an abdominal hernia and collapsed bowel
scuttled another defense against Kelvin
Gastelum a year later. Whittaker’s eventual return, a 2019
title defense against Israel
Adesanya in Melbourne, Australia, should have been a crowning
moment for Whittaker but instead felt like a passing of the torch
to the current champion. Whittaker’s aggression bordered into
wildness, and Adesanya took the undisputed middleweight crown in
one-sided fashion, eventually scoring a second-round knockout.
Between the result and the prior injuries, the worry was that
Whittaker was clearly past his prime. However, after a much-needed
break to regroup, the former champion came back in his best form
yet. His rebound win over Darren Till
was a bit too cautious at times, but subsequent victories over
Jared
Cannonier and the aforementioned Gastelum showed Whittaker to
be sharper than ever, fighting within himself and keeping his more
limited opponents on their toes with some varied offense. That led
Whittaker to a February rematch against Adesanya, which resulted in
a much better performance. Adesanya managed to stay ahead on the
scorecards after a hot start, but Whittaker made it a much closer
fight the second time around—enough so that some thought he may
have eked out three rounds in what was mostly a narrowly matched
affair. Whittaker now seems clearly ensconced as the second-best
middleweight in the UFC for as long as his body holds up, so it is
up to him to once again pick off any potential contenders until a
trilogy fight seems inevitable. It starts here against Vettori.
The face of Italian mixed martial arts at the moment, Vettori has
enjoyed an impressive rise from raw prospect to title contender.
Relatively formless upon his 2016 UFC debut, “The Italian Dream”
started turning a corner with his 2018 near-win over Adesanya,
settling into a consistent pressuring attack that leverages his
cardio and extreme level of durability. Main event wins over
Jack
Hermansson and Kevin
Holland were one-sided affairs that showed off exactly how
consistent Vettori is with pouring offense onto his opponents, but
the rematch against Adesanya—a much clearer loss, this time in a
title fight—laid bare the issues in the Italian’s game. If
anything, Vettori is consistent to a fault, with a lack of
diversity to his attack that causes two main issues: Beyond the
predictability making him much less of a knockout threat than his
frame would suggest, a more technically sound striker like Adesanya
was mostly able to outmaneuver him over the course of five rounds.
Vettori’s lone fight since the last Adesanya loss, a main event win
over Paulo
Costa, was an impressive reminder of his durability and
willingness to keep up a torrid pace, but it did not change the
book on him much, particularly for this matchup. Vettori figures to
be frustrating for the Aussie thanks to his sheer persistence, but
Whittaker should be another fighter who can outmaneuver the Kings
MMA rep’s relatively one-dimensional approach, particularly with
his likely ability to shut down any wrestling attempts from the
Italian. The pick is Whittaker via decision.
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