Uriah Hall believes Robert Whittaker will withdraw from UFC 243

UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker is scheduled to defend his title opposite interim champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 this October. In the opinion of long-time middleweight contender Uriah Hall, however, this Whittaker-Adesanya matchup is doomed to fail.

Hall believes that Whittaker will ultimately withdraw from this fight, just as he did last time he was scheduled to fight in his native Australia. In that event, Hall says he’ll happily step in on short-notice to replace Whittaker against Adesanya — a fighter he seems to respect.

“We know Robert’s going to get hurt – I’ll be on deck. I’ll be like, ‘Hey man, let’s crack,’” Hall told MMA Junkie. “It’s not even to say, ‘Screw you, man,’ – I think Israel is definitely one of the best. I’m just excited because I feel like it’s an anime thing going on between us. I’m Dragon Ball Z, he’s Naruto. So we’ve got to have that classic matchup. We understand each other’s style. I understand his style. I just want to test myself against the best.”

Uriah Hall will return to the cage this weekend at UFC Vancouver, where he’ll take on Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist Antonio Carlos Jr. In this fight, he’ll look to build on the momentum of a late 2018 knockout of Bevon Lewis. In his next most recent outing, Hall was stopped by undefeated contender Paulo Costa, succumbing to a volley of strikes after enjoying some success of his own early on. The 35-year-old Ultimate Fighter 17 veteran is currently 14-9 overall.

Does a future fight between Uriah Hall and Israel Adesanya interest you?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/12/2019.