The UFC middleweight champion is set to defend his title against the man he won it from – Robert Whittaker. The two are set to rematch on Feb. 12 at UFC 271 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
The session was declared by the advancement on Saturday night.
It's a rematch that has been north of two years really taking shape.
UFC 271 info
Date: Feb. 12
Location: Houston, Texas -- Toyota Center
Start time: 10 p.m. ET (Main card)
How to watch: ESPN+ PPV
In the wake of catching the between time UFC middleweight title in an exemplary fight against Kelvin Gastelum, Adesanya (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) brought together the belts with then undisputed champ Whittaker (23-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) in seemingly the most immaculate execution of his profession.
From that point forward, "The Last Stylebender" has guarded his belt multiple times. His solitary vocation difficulty arrived in a bombed bid to become double champ against UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.
Whittaker has bobbed back from his misfortune to Adesanya in a decided manner. He disposed of strong competitors Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, and Gastelum from the title competition to work his direction back to a rematch with Adesanya.
Adesanya (22-1, fighting out of Auckland, New Zealand) dethroned Whittaker in front of the largest live audience in UFC history at UFC 243 in 2019. Since then, he has delivered memorable title defenses against Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa and Yoel Romero.
Adesanya now aims to stop Whittaker again to keep his spot atop the middleweight division and continue building his legacy as one of the most dominant UFC champions.
Former champion Whittaker (23-5, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) is gunning to even the score with heated rival Adesanya. UFC 271 live
Throughout his UFC run, The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes winner secured spectacular victories over Jared Cannonier, Derek Brunson and Yoel Romero.
Whittaker now has his sights set on reclaiming his middleweight championship by becoming the first fighter to finish Adesanya in MMA.
UFC 271 fight card
- Israel Adesanya (c) vs Robert Whittaker, middleweight championship
- Kyler Phillips vs Marcelo Rojo, bantamweight
- Alex Perez vs Matt Schnell, flyweight
- Vinc Pichel vs Mark Madsen, lightweight
- Roxanne Modafferi vs Casey O'Neill, women's flyweight
- Carlos Ulberg vs Fabio Cherant, light heavyweight
- Ed Herman vs Maxim Grishin, light heavyweight
- Mana Martinez vs Ronnie Lawrence, bantamweight
- Alexander Hernandez vs Renato Moicano, lightweight
- AJ Dobson vs Jacob Malkoun, middleweight
- Douglas Silva De Andrade vs Sergey Morozov, bantamweight
- Orion Cosce vs Blood Diamond, welterweight
