Chael Sonnen thinks the UFC made a mistake booking Robert Whittaker vs. Dricus Du Plessis.
Whittaker (24-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC) is scheduled to face Du Plessis (19-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) at UFC 290 on July 8, in what is expected to be a No. 1 contender fight for middleweight champion Israel Adesanya according to Dana White.
But Sonnen is advocating for Du Plessis to fight Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC), and thinks his fight with Whittaker should have never been made.
“It’s not too late,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “We shouldn’t have made du Plessis vs. Whittaker, should we have, guys? We should’ve made du Plessis vs. Adesanya. Izzy says, ‘I’m not going to fight anybody till I fight him.’ Izzy doesn’t care if he doesn’t beat Whittaker. … Matter of fact, Izzy predicts Whittaker is going to beat Du Plessis. Izzy doesn’t care if he’s coming off a loss. He doesn’t care if he’s coming off a knockout humiliating defeat, he’s going to fight him next.”
Du Plessis and Adesanya have been going at it after Du Plessis claimed that winning UFC gold would make him the first true African champion in the octagon. But Nigeria-born Adesanya deemed South Africa’s Du Plessis’ comments as ignorant, which sparked a back-and-forth between the two.
Based off the fact that Adesanya already has beaten Whittaker twice and Du Plessis is a fresh challenger, Sonnen thinks it’s the fight to make. Adesanya also said he wants Du Plessis next, and doesn’t want to fight anybody else.
“Now we have an opportunity to just pull this fight,” Sonnen said. “What are we doing?”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.