Alex Prates: Paulo Costa Has Power Advantage, But Robert Whittaker Moves Better via alonsopvt
At least that was what his head coach, Alex Prates, told Sherdog.com when asked about the alternate possibility of having “Bobby Knuckles” face“That fight would make no sense to Robert,” Prates said then. “To tell you the truth, the UFC is planning a pay-per-view event in Perth, Australia, in February, and we’re almost positive the UFC will make the trilogy with Adesanya there.”in the UFC 281 main event, the team’s plans had to be recalculated.
“We had to face two possibilities,” Prates said. “If ‘Poatan’ beats Adesanya, it would make sense for the UFC to give [Adesanya] an immediate rematch, and that would put us in total inactivity for 12 months at least. And even if Adesanya wins clearly, he probably wouldn’t return until July, which would also be a long period of inactivity. Rhythm is something very important to Robert. He fought twice this year. That's why we accepted the offer of facing Costa here at UFC 284.
According to Prates, Whittaker is very motivated to face Costa despite his opponent being below him in the UFC rankings. “Costa is dangerous and has a lot of knockout power, but Robert moves better, has better wrestling and also jiu-jitsu,” Prates said. “I’m pretty certain that he will get an impressive win for his people and get the chance to challenge for the belt against against either Adesanya or Pereira.”“Adesanya has this undefeated aura [at middleweight], and I hope ‘Poatan’ gets the win to take that undefeated aura from him. I truly believe it's going to be 50-50.
Prates is optimistic about the success of the UFC’s return to Australia, which could also include a lightweight championship bout between