MELBOURNE, Australia — The UFC’s middleweight unification bout between Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya is official for UFC 243 on Saturday, after both fighters successfully made weight on Friday.
Whittaker (20-4), the 185-pound division’s current champion, weighed in at 185 pounds. Adesanya (17-0), the interim titleholder, clearly had no trouble making weight, as he came in at 184 pounds in sweatpants and shoes.
The unification bout will headline UFC 243 on Saturday at Marvel Stadium, and could set a new UFC record for live attendance.
Officially, this will mark Whittaker’s first title defense. He defeated Yoel Romero in June 2018 as the middleweight champion, but Romero missed weight prior to the bout — so it was not technically an official title fight. Whittaker, of Sydney, was scheduled to defend his belt against Kelvin Gastelum in February in Melbourne, but was forced to pull out the day of the fight due to a hernia.
Saturday will mark the first appearance in 484 days for Whittaker, 28.
Adesanya, who was born in Nigeria and now lives in New Zealand, has enjoyed a meteoric rise during Whittaker’s inactivity. The 30-year-old former professional kickboxer has won six fights since signing with the UFC in early 2018.
All fighters scheduled to compete at UFC 243 made weight, with the exception of female flyweight Ji Yeon Kim and bantamweight Khalid Taha. Both fights are expected to go on.