Why former Israel Adesanya UFC rival Robert Whittaker reached out to City Kickboxing

Robert Whittaker cast his gaze far and wide in a bid to expand his horizons, before ultimately landing on a site much closer to home.

The former UFC middleweight champion was in Auckland this week training alongside longtime rival Israel Adesanya and the team at City Kickboxing, with Whittaker reaching out to the gym as he looks for ways to add to his own training.

Whittaker, who was born in New Zealand but grew up and resides in Australia, was only in New Zealand for a few days in what he described to the Herald as a successful “meet the team” visit to the Auckland gym.

“We came to the conclusion we needed more bodies, we wanted to experience new training styles, and we started looking at our options,” Whittaker said.

“We were looking all over the world; definitely, there’s training out there in the States and what now, but light a flash of lightning [I thought] CKB’s just across the lake – it’s practically home - why don’t we contact them, head over, meet the boys, see if it works, then maybe we can work something out and try form a good relationship.”

It’s a relationship that Whittaker admits he never thought he would explore, given he and Adesanya have been rivals for the best part of the last decade.

The two fought twice inside the UFC octagon. In October 2019, Adesanya dethroned Whittaker to become the undisputed UFC middleweight champion, before Adesanya claimed a unanimous decision win when Whittaker attempted to reclaim the title in February 2020.

They remain highly ranked in the middleweight division – Adesanya at No 2 and Whittaker at No 4 – however Whittaker said them working together most likely puts any chance of a third fight between them to bed.

“There is no way I thought we’d be here breaking bread, you know, but here we are, the world’s a funny place,” Whittaker said.

“I’m happy for it because, just being open to ideas, to broadening horizons, I’ve met some new boys, I’m getting some new work out of it, and it just keeps things fun; keeps things interesting.”

Images of Whittaker and Adesanya training together circulated on social media earlier this week, with MMA fans and fellow UFC athletes just as surprised as Whittaker at the idea of the two training together.

“You don’t want to like a rival,” Whittaker said.

“There’s a point I make of like not trying to like any other middleweights just because of the potential of fighting them, but I think that door’s kind of closed with me and him now training together.

“I’ve been in the game so long, he’s been in the game, we know what the stakes are. If anything, we know each other better than most other people.”

Whittaker’s visit to City Kickboxing is a timely one for his former rival turned training partner, with Adesanya set to return to the octagon early next month against No 5-ranked Nassourdine Imavov in Saudi Arabia.

Imavov, 28, comes into the bout on a three-fight winning streak looking to cement himself as a potential title challenger in 2025 against the former two-time champion Adesanya, 35, who will look to get back to winning ways after a couple of losses in title fights.

The bout will be Adesanya’s first since an unsuccessful title challenge against Dricus du Plesiss, and is a match-up that Whittaker believes The Last Stylebender can have success in.

“I find it hard to bet against Izzy in any match-up just about because he’s so good at controlling that space and distance and his striking is so effective, his timing is so effective, so I just find it very hard,” Whittaker said.

“Like, Imaov doesn’t like getting stalked back. He can close that space, he can control that space with his reach, like the way he does. He can make Imavov really uncomfortable.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.