Adesanya vs Whittaker Main Event Confirmed for UFC 271 in Houston

Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker ufc 271

UFC has confirmed that Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker will main event UFC 271 PPV in their Middleweight championship rematch.

UFC 271 airs on February 12, 2021, from Toyota Center in Houston, TX. The match between Adesanya and Whittaker was long speculated for the event but was never confirmed prior to the promotion’s tweet.

The Last Stylebender won the interim Middleweight title at UFC 236 event against Kelvin Gastelum. The New Zealand citizen later unified the title by beating Whittaker at UFC 243 in Melbourne, Australia. He has since defended the title three times against Yoel Romera(UFC248), Paulo Costa(UFC 253) and Marvin Vettori(UFC 263). Adesanya also suffered his only MMA loss in between these wins against Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Blachowicz.

Since losing the title, Whittaker has been on a 3-fight winning streak. He has defeated Daren Till and Jared Cannonier in 2020, and most recently beaten Kelvin Gastelum at a Fight Night event in April this year. All three of these wins have come via unanimous decisions.

Adesanya called out Whittaker for a rematch after he defeated Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. Adesanya expressed that he wanted the fight to take place in New Zealand this time. However, the COVID-19 situation might not have given UFC an opportunity to stage the fight in New Zealand though.

The location for 271 was also not confirmed until a few days back with the card also not taking its proper shape until now. Apart from the main event bout, Roxanne Modafferi’s retirement bout vs Casey O’Neill is also said to be in work. Renato Moicano vs Alexander Hernandez, Carlos Ulberg vs Fabio Cherant, Douglas Silva de Andrade vs Sergey Morozov and Maxim Grishin vs ED Herman are also rumored for the event.

Keep tuned in for more news and updates from UFC.

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