Robert Whittaker is determined to get back to the winning column, and he believes the way to do that is by having a tough mentality. For him, that includes taking his fight against Paulo Costa “with bad intentions.”
“The Reaper” will attempt to redeem himself on February 17 when he faces Costa at UFC 298. Whittaker is coming from a TKO loss to Dricus Du Plessis last July, but with an aspiration to reach the top in the future, he knows that he must start making a winning streak again.
Costa will be the start of this plan. However, the New Zealand-born Australian knows that Costa won’t be an easy fight.
“Paulo’s strong, man – he’s a big powerful puncher,” Whittaker told Middle Easy. “He’s a big, strong guy. He’s aggressive. He’s very dangerous. He’s got strong kicks. He’s got strong punches. He’s one of those guys that if you give him space, if you let him fight his fight, he’ll bully you. He’ll take advantage of that passiveness and go after you. I do not intend to let him have that.”
For Whittaker, the answer to ensure his win and “close this fight early” is by making an actual intention to hurt his opponent.
“I am going in there with bad intentions. I’m looking to go into this fight to really hurt him. That’s just the mentality I’ve adopted for this fight because I want to get back into that winning circle. I want to utilize the skill sets and the training that I’ve been putting in for this camp, and the best way to do that is through him.”
