Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker wasn’t pleased to see an image of his damaged teeth quickly circulating online last October.
Whittaker hasn’t competed since suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi.
The undefeated “Borz” emerged victorious from his toughest test to date in emphatic fashion, locking in a face crank for the first-round submission.
His Australian opponent tapped almost immediately due to the pressure of the submission hold displacing his front teeth. And the severity of the issue was revealed when color commentator Daniel Cormier displayed an image of Whittaker’s damaged mouth toward the end of the broadcast.
The following month, “The Reaper” questioned the former fighter’s decision to share the image — and it would seem he’s still quite irritated.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Uncrowned, Whittaker addressed “DC” broadcasting the image to the MMA fanbase, explaining why he would have rather it stay behind closed doors.
“I was super annoyed! It’s such a scummy thing to do,” Whittaker said. “The doctor took a photo of my mouth and said, ‘I’m just going to go show Dana (White) and Hunter (Campbell) so that they know what’s up.’ And I’m like, ‘Cool.’ And then DC took a photo off the other guy’s phone to post all over socials. It’s like, is that not scummy?
“I don’t care that much (about it being out there), but it looked a lot worse than it (was),” Whittaker continued. “The thing is though,, because it was posted all over the place, I was getting condolence messages, like people thought I was dead. And I would have liked to control the reaction a little better, but it is what it is, what are you gonna do?”
Whittaker went on to note the quick nature of his recovery from what initially appeared to be a traumatic injury, with the ex-champ returning to training just four weeks later.
He’ll now be looking ahead to his first assignment of 2025 and attempt to return to winning ways, as he looks to restart his journey back toward the 185-pound gold.