For the first time in his UFC career, Israel Adesanya has opened as a betting underdog.
The newly crowned UFC interim middleweight champion was slotted as a +160 betting underdog in opening lines released Monday by online bookermaker BetOnline for a potential title unification bout against UFC middleweight titleholder Robert Whittaker. Whittaker, who has held the belt since July 2017, opened as a healthy -185 betting favorite for the future contest, which will likely take place in the third or fourth quarter of 2019.
The gap between Adesanya and Whittaker has closed somewhat at the time of this writing, with Adesanya now sitting as a +135 underdog and Whittaker as a -155 favorite.