On Nov. 12, 2022, in the main event of UFC 281 in what was Israel Adesanya's sixth defense of his middleweight title, he was knocked out by Alex Pereira in the back half of the fifth round of their bout at Madison Square Garden in New York and lost the championship.
It hasn't been successfully defended since.
The belt has gone from Adesanya to Pereira at UFC 281 back to Adesanya at UFC 287 to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. On Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 298 at The Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., former champion Rob Whittaker begins a quest for what he hopes will be another title reign when he challenges Paulo Costa in one of the most intriguing and significant bouts on the card.
Whittaker is ranked third at middleweight behind Strickland and Adesanya, but he enters the bout having lost two of his last three. A win over the sixth-ranked Costa would do much to bolster his case for another title shot down the line. Even with a win over Costa on Saturday, and he's a -250 favorite at DraftKings' sports book to get it, Whittaker likely won't get a title shot next.
Without a win Saturday, though, his path back to the belt is long and complicated.
"I think both of these guys are in that position right now," UFC CEO Dana White said of Whittaker and Costa each badly needing a win. "Both have been through some shit in the last couple of years and Robert Whittaker has been up and down. It's a big fight for both guys, but it's a fun fight, too. It's a bad-ass fight. I really like this matchup."
Any fight involving Costa is likely to bring fans out of their seats. Whittaker knows full well want to expect from Costa. Costa likes to charge full steam ahead and use his power and his physicality to break down his opponents.
Whittaker knows he can't let Costa fight as if he's going downhill, and so look for him to bring the fight to Costa.
"He's got big powerful strikes and he likes bullying his opponents," Whittaker said. "I just don't think he does very well when he's the one being bullied, and that's where I'm going to take this fight. I'm going to take the fight to him. I've been training for a war. I've been prepared to give him a war. I look forward to the 15 minutes I've been given to finish him off."
Whittaker first won the title at UFC 213 on July 8, 2017, when he beat Yoel Romero by decision. He lost it to Adesanya at UFC 243 and then dropped another shot at it to Adesanya at UFC 271, on Feb. 12, 2022.
He's still only 33 years old and doesn't have a tremendous amount of wear and tear on his body so it's not out of the question he'll be back in the title mix if he strings a couple of wins against ranked opponents together. Since he's lost twice to Adesanya, it would probably be better for him if Adesanya didn't regain the belt, but the way this division is going, who knows who is going to have it from one moment to the next?
Whittaker has a slew of big wins to his credit, including the two victories over Romero as well as ones over Jacare Souza, Derek Brunson, Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, Kelvin Gastelum and Marvin Vettori. He's sort of been the standard in the division for better than six years now.
He knows what it takes to win at the highest level and is confident he'll be able to find a path to getting a win over Costa.
"I definitely think the range of weapons I have at my disposal and just the angles and the output I'm going to put on him is going to get to him," Whittaker said.
He wasn't able to get to Du Plessis when they fought at UFC 290 on July 8 in Las Vegas and that's a loss that haunts him. Du Plessis stopped him in the second round after Whittaker got off to a decent start.
At a news conference in Sydney, Australia, earlier this month, Whittaker said he wasn't prepared for how hungry Du Plessis would be.
“Dricus is a hungry guy, and I think I underestimated that hunger,” he said at the Feb. 4 news conference. “I still believe I beat him nine times out of 10. I still believe that I’m a better fighter than he is, and that I have a better skill set than he does, but [fighting] a big, strong, hungry guy who is willing to leave it all there, you need to match that. I feel like I didn’t do that in that last fight and it really made me think a little bit.”
He's a bright guy who knows what he needs to start a winning streak on Saturday. If he pulls it off, it will lead him to the only place he wants to be.
"I want to win the belt," he said. "I want to win the belt back and retire at the top of the food chain. That's the overarching goal and that's the goal I am hunting."