Robert Whittaker discusses why the UFC is making a mistake by giving fighters who miss weight title shots as he believes that shouldn’t be the case. If you recall, Whittaker won the interim title when he beat Yoel Romero back at UFC 213 in July of 2017 by unanimous decision. He was later crowned the champion after Georges St-Pierre vacated it.
Next Fight
The UFC has already announced that once Whittaker is healthy enough to fight again, he will make his next title defense against top contender Kelvin Gastelum.
Robert Whittaker Discusses
Whittaker recently sounded off on why the promotion should stop giving fighters title shots who miss weight. Keep in mind that although the champ has never missed weight, he did fight someone who did. Romero missed weight for their fight at UFC 225.
“It’s like me going down to bantamweight, not making weight, winning because I’m much bigger and then getting a title shot,” said Whittaker via MMA Fighting. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. Because on the flip side, the guys that are making weight don’t make it easy. It wasn’t easy to cut weight and make weight and do the job. We still had to struggle, we still had to diet weeks out. We’re just more professional at it. We just did it right.”
Reality
“The people who do make weight are also in a hard position,” Whittaker said. “Because they’re in a position where they still need to make money to pay the bills, to earn a wage, to do their job. But they also have the support of hundreds of thousands of people who have come to see them fight or that are watching them on TV to watch a fight. The fans. That’s kind of why you fight — they drive the sport,” he added.
“When you ask a guy, ‘Are you gonna take a fight if your opponent doesn’t make weight?’ Is it really asking? Does he really have a choice? When you back them into a corner like that, is there really a choice to be made? You have to look at the whole process behind it. It’s a very funny topic, missing weight and getting title shots,” Whittaker said. “I think the punishments should be more severe, but I don’t know.”
Whittaker will also coach the upcoming The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 28 opposite of Gastelum prior to them fighting for the strap.
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