Israel Adesanya: "At This Point It's Just Boring" Fighting Robert Whittaker, "I Have to Make It Interesting for Myself"

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya admits that "at this point it's just boring," potentially having to fight Robert Whittaker a third time. Adesanya appeared on the June 13 episode of "The MMA Hour" where he discussed a potential bout with the winner of Dricus Du Plessis and Whittaker which takes place at UFC 290 in July.

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"If [Whittaker] wins, I have to make it interesting for myself, at this point it's just boring .... I'm a dog who likes [to have a sense of myself], and I'll make it really, really interesting and I'll be able to get him out of there.

"He's a cool guy, we're cool, we're cordial. I was just like, 'Look, I respect you,' and we had a nice interaction but then obviously when someone whoops your ass twice --- trust me I know --- you want to get it back, so it's always there, but the respect's there, I like him he's cool. But when it's time to fight, we're going to fight."

Adesanya has fought and beaten seven of the middleweight top 15 (six if you discount Pereira moving to light heavyweight), and the entirety of the top five. He's also beaten #2 Whittaker and #3 Vettori twice. As far as challenges go, Adesanya is doing laps on his entire division.

For now, the only fresh face in the top 10 who has an active win-streak is South Africa's Du Plessis, who is already fueling the flames of a potential Adesanya matchup.

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"Stillknocks" appeared in front of MMAJunkie at the UFC 285 media day after his victory over Derek Brunson back in March, and remarked about taking the middleweight belt back to Africa, claiming he was "the African fighter in the UFC," not Adesanya or Usman.

Du Plessis' comments sparked controversy, and more so a scathing rebuttal by Adesanya himself, who exclaimed that he'd "gladly drag [Du Plessis'] carcass across South Africa .... I pray to God he keeps winning," during the UFC 287 post-fight presser.

It's an interesting matchup with plenty of bad blood to fuel the marketing machine. However, Du Plessis still has to get past his biggest test yet, which is Whittaker in Vegas on July 9.

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