Robert Whittaker’s coach hopes he can emulate among the success Gilbert Burns had vs. Khamzat Chimaev.
Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC) will look at hand Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) the primary lack of his profession after they sq. off within the UFC on ABC 6 most important occasion June 22 at Kingdom Area in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Burns gave Chimaev arguably the hardest check of his profession after they fought in a welterweight bout at UFC 273 in April 2022. Chimaev was outstruck by Burns, however in the end outlasted him in an all-out warfare.
Whittaker’s head coach Alex Prates says they need to match Chimaev’s tempo from the get go.
“The 2 final fights, particularly ‘Durinho,’ the Gilbert Burns struggle, I must thank him for the blueprint,” Prates advised Sherdog. “I watched the struggle so many instances. I believe he gave a really clear path to victory by beginning onerous, be very aggressive from the guard, be very aggressive standing.
“Within the struggle with Kamaru Usman – and I’m positive Usman is pondering this now – if he might return and begin that struggle at the next tempo, he would. That is the error that we don’t need to do in any respect. We’re going to start out onerous. He begins one hundred pc, we begin 110 p.c.”
Whittaker is coming off an entertaining, back-and-forth win over Paulo Costa at UFC 298. If the previous middleweight champion is ready to drag Chimaev into deep waters, his coach is assured that he can get the end.
“When it turns into a canine struggle, I don’t see anybody beating Robert on this division – anybody,” Prates mentioned. “But when I used to be a playing man, which I’m not, third-round technical knockout, Robert Whittaker.”
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