‘Could have hit him with my car’: How UFC stars turned from bitter rivals to training partners

We could have a new bromance spawning in the world of mixed martial arts.

Once bitter rivals inside the cage, former UFC middleweight champions Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya have recently buried the hatchet in a surprise turn of events.

The pair posted to social media to reveal they had begun training together at Auckland's City Kickboxing gym, before doing content together for Adesanya's YouTube channel.

It's a far cry from their battles inside the octagon and their intense feud that ushered in an incredible era of combat sports for both Australia and New Zealand.

Israel Adesanya knocks out Robert Whittaker at UFC 243.  Getty

In October 2019, Adesanya knocked out Whittaker to capture the title, but the latter managed to work his way back up and earn a rematch in February 2022.

In their second meeting, Whittaker managed to take Adesanya the full five rounds, but ultimately fell short by unanimous decision to dash his hopes of winning back the prize.

While the end of their second bout saw a healthy amount of professional respect shared, few could have imagined the trans-Tasman rivals would end up becoming mates.

Speaking on a podcast this week, Whittaker admitted their recent meetings took some getting used to and hilariously reminisced on their time as enemies.

"When I was walking into his house, I sat on his couch and he asked me if I wanted anything to eat and I'm just thinking 'where am I right now, how did we get here?' It was surreal," the 34-year-old told The Ariel Helwani Show.

"Australia and New Zealand is us versus everybody – but we kind of like being rivals as well and that kind of set the scene. It was good to finally hash that out. 

"I wouldn't say it was personal – but I'm pretty sure in 2019 if I could have hit him with my car, I would have. Not killed him, but maybe a little bump.

"There was no love lost back then."

The reunion in recent times left many fans stunned, but it was something that came out of necessity for Whittaker, who finds himself at somewhat of a career crossroads.

After losing his last fight against Khamzat Chimaev in gruesome fashion, the Aussie star has been shuffled back in the middleweight title scene and with changes inside his own camp, it was time for Whittaker to look outside the box.

Even if that meant making a trip to Auckland to share trade secrets with his arch-rival.

Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya in training.  Twitter

"A few of my teammates have retired or gone in different paths and we were just lacking in bodies, so I sat down with my coaches and we were hashing out the plan," he said.

"We started looking global and where we could go … and then we remembered that City Kickboxing is two-and-a-half hours away and it makes perfect sense to go there.

"It was so left-field for me, because I was so locked into that headspace of being rivals.

"It makes perfect sense and I stopped having any sort of emotions over our rivalry years ago. Let's be honest, me and Izzy had our rivalry and had our time.

"There's a lot of young blood in the division now. The chances of us crossing paths again was super low to begin with."