A middleweight clash between Robert Whittaker and Dricus du Plessis is set to go down at UFC 290 during International Fight Week in Las Vegas on July 8th, and according to Dana White there’s a title shot on the line for the winner.
“The winner of that fight will fight [Israel] Adesanya later this year, and that fight is targeted for Sydney, Australia,” White stated on social media.
A former middleweight champion, the 32-year-old Whittaker already holds two losses to current titleholder Adesanya, having suffered a KO loss in their first encounter back in 2019, while early last year he lost out by unanimous decision to him.
So Adesanya has clearly become Whittaker’s nemesis, as he’s actually won all 13 of his other fights beyond that since the summer of 2014, beating the likes of Yoel Romero (x2), Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Jared Cannonier, Kelvin Gastelum and most recently Marvin Vettori along the way.
Whittaker has yet to test himself against the 29-year-old Du Plessis though, who has been blazing a trail up the middleweight ranks over the past few years, racking up five wins in a row so far over the likes of Brad Tavares, Darren Till and most recently Derek Brunson, with all but one of those victories coming inside the distance.
Whittaker vs. du Plessis joins a UFC 290 card that will feature a featherweight title unification bout between current champ Alexander Volkanovski and interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez, while flyweight kingpin Brandon Moreno looks to defend his title in a rematch against Alexandre Pantoja.
