Preview: UFC 290 ‘Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez’

Middleweights

Robert Whittaker (24-6) vs. Dricus Du Plessis (19-2)
Odds: Whittaker (-400), du Plessis (+300)

A third shot at Israel Adesanya appears to be in reach for Whittaker with a win here, as the Australian continues to carve out his niche as the best middleweight in the world outside of the current champion. A TUF winner back in 2012, Whittaker quickly hit a ceiling at welterweight before becoming an all-time success story for a fighter moving up in weight; once "The Reaper" moved up to 185 pounds, his newfound cardio and sudden speed advantage made everything click into place for a march towards the title. After knockouts of Derek Brunson and "Jacare" Souza - the latter of which also serving as an opportunity for Whittaker to show off his improved wrestling chops - Whittaker was undeniable as a contender, so with the middleweight title picture in flux at the time, he took on Yoel Romero for an interim belt. Whittaker won an all-out war to take the decision win, and everything looked sanguine from there; he was set up for both a unification bout against either Michael Bisping or Georges St. Pierre, and seemed poised to be the pillar of the UFC's promotional efforts in Australia. Instead, Whittaker's title reign seemed cursed. St. Pierre won the title from Bisping and vacated it shortly thereafter, causing Whittaker to get promoted to undisputed champion without cashing in on a big payday, and attempts to have Whittaker defend his title on home soil fell through for some horrific reasons, with Whittaker suffering a severe staph infection, abdominal hernia and collapsed bowel at various times over the next few years. Whittaker's lone successful title defense wound up coming in another five-round war against Romero, and Whittaker's next fight in Australia wound up as a defense against Adesanya, who outclassed Whittaker to take both his title and status as the face of mixed martial arts in the region. Thankfully, Whittaker's snapped back into elite form in the years since, as there haven't been signs of any slowdown inside of the cage and no major medical issues outside of it, but trying to get over the proverbial hump of Adesanya has remained a struggle; a rematch in February of last year was a much closer Adesanya win, but Whittaker rebounded with a one-sided win over Marvin Vettori to keep himself in the title picture. There are previous few fresh challengers left for Adesanya at this point, so picking one of those off is a priority for the former champ to keep himself at the front of the line - to that end, a win over surging South African du Plessis would be a big one. Du Plessis was a highly successful fighter on the international scene prior to signing with the UFC, so it's not necessarily a surprise that he's risen to contender status, but it's still a bit shocking to see what "Stillknocks" brings to the table actually work in action. Du Plessis isn't a particularly technical fighter and seems to be fighting through exhaustion shortly before the opening bell, but he's an explosive athlete that simply just keeps trying things with maximum effort, which has managed to find his opponent's breaking point in all five of his UFC bouts. Du Plessis's two signature wins to date over Darren Till and Derek Brunson were both absolute messes that saw each fighter have a ton of success, but through horsepower and pace, he was able to force each into some bad decisions and find a decisive finish. There's a chance that du Plessis's status as an absolute wild man finds something here; Whittaker usually takes a bit to work his way into a fight and has been prone to engaging in an exchange he should probably turn down. But it's also hard to look how much du Plessis's form devolves by the second round and not imagine Whittaker running away with things for the majority of this fight, particularly with his wrestling figuring to be an effective escape hatch if du Plessis can't knock the former champ out with one shot. It's far from a safe fight, but the pick is Whittaker via clear decision.

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Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez
Moreno vs. Pantoja
Whittaker vs. Du Plessis
Turner vs. Hooker
Nickal vs. Woodburn
The Prelims