Last July, newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis became the first man not named Israel Adesanya to defeat Robert Whittaker in the best part of a decade. 

But despite that defeat Whittaker, who is scheduled to fight Paulo Costa at this month’s UFC 298 event, believes that the result of his bout with the South African champion was an anomaly that would be rectified should the two ever cross paths in the cage again.

“Dricus is a hungry guy, man,” Whittaker said as part of a media event promoting this month’s pay-per-view event in Anaheim, California.

“You saw in his last fight,” Whittaker added. “I think I underestimated that hunger. I still do believe I beat him nine times out of 10. I still believe I’m a better fighter than he is, that I have a better skill set than he does, but mate, a big strong guy that’s hungry and willing to leave it all there? You need to match that. I feel I didn’t do that in that last fight.”

Just out the full press event, which also featured Alexander Volkanovski and Justin Tafa, below:

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