If you listened to the commentary for the main event of UFC271, you would have thought that Israel Adesanya breezed home to an easy unanimous decision victory over Robert Whittaker.
While Adesanya put on a show in the first round and even earned a knockdown, many are disagreeing with the judges’ scorecards, claiming The Reaper was robbed of the middleweight title on Sunday afternoon.
The biggest critic was Chanel Sonnen saying he didn’t even think the fight was close.
“I saw something different to the judges,” Sonnen said.
“I thought Whittaker won this fight, I didn’t even think it was all that close.”
Fellow panelist Anthony Smith agreed.
“It was razor, razor thin, I also had Whittaker ahead, I thought he did well with the takedowns, I thought he was defensively sound for the most part,” Smith said.
Whether you agree that Whittaker should have been ahead or not, it just displays the subjectivity of MMA. One person’s scorecards will most likely look different to the next person but it has shown that Whittaker has been able to adapt following his second round TKO loss to Adesanya in 2019.
During that time, Whittaker fought the likes of Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum, all wins by unanimous decision and two of the three fights being five rounds.
It will be interesting to see whether the UFC grants Whittaker another shot at Adesanya as the Australian was in full belief in a post-fight interview that he won the fight.
“I’m happy that I fought my heart out, that I left it here,” Whittaker said.
“But yeah, I’m gutted. I’m gutted. I thought I did enough.”
