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Featherweight contender Alexander Volkanovski is a fan of Robert Whittaker's but will be rooting for Israel Adesanya in Sunday's UFC middleweight title fight.

Stablemates say Israel Adesanya has always believed he will be a UFC world champion, and one prominent Australian fighter will be rooting for him against Robert Whittaker at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

The New Zealand-based Adesanya has exuded his trademark confidence in Melbourne this week, convinced he will end Whittaker's middleweight title reign.

The Nigerian-born Adesanya has a perfect 17-0 MMA record and is 6-0 under the UFC banner, .

He won the interim title in his last fight and in less than two years with the UFC, has been fast-tracked into a full championship bout with Whittaker, who is on a nine-fight win streak stretching back over five years.

"He's been telling us since as far as I can remember that he's going to be world champ and stadiums are going to have his name in lights," said Adesanya's City Kickboxing stablemate Dan Hooker, who is also fighting on Sunday's show.

Adesanya was angling for an opportunity with the UFC when he watched their last Marvel Stadium show in 2015, which attracted an organisation record crowd of over 56,000.

"Even at UFC 193 right here back when it was Etihad Stadium I remember walking the streets and tweeting 'if you see (UFC boss Dana (White) mention me'," Adesnaya said.

"Now here we are, I'm about to headline the whole thing and shock the world."

While Whittaker will have plenty of Australians on his side, one notable exception will be world No.1-ranked featherweight contender Alexander Volkanovski.

He admires Whittaker greatly but Volkanovski, who challenges featherweight world champion Max Holloway in December, regularly trains at City Kickboxing.

"I am rooting for Izzy this weekend, but there's no real bad result, but Izzy is a teammate and I hope he does well," Volkanovski said.