Robert Whittaker was broken by Khamzat Chimaev — literally.
The former middleweight champion tapped to a face crank from “Borz” as part of the UFC 308 pay-per-view (PPV) last month in Abu Dhabi, a painful submission hold that snapped off several of “The Reaper’s” teeth (see that awful photo here).
Whittaker is fresh out of surgery and already back in training.
“His middle teeth were unstable since the fight with Dricus [Du Plessis]. Chimaev’s [face crank] was exactly on top of these three front teeth that broke immediately,” Whittaker’s coach, Alex Prates, told Sherdog.com. “After he had his six teeth implanted, he returned to training on Monday, but without any contact.”
The loss to Chimaev snapped a two-fight losing streak for the 33 year-old “Reaper.”
“He will train Muay Thai, run, everything — but without contact,” Prates continued. “Maybe he will still have an operation on his elbow to remove some bone fragments, but we haven’t decided yet. It’s a minor surgery, but it would cost another month. Our plan is to return to the Octagon in June.”
Whittaker (26-8) is currently seated at No. 4 in the 185-pound division and could be just a couple of wins away from scoring another crack at the middleweight crown. No word yet on when or where “The Reaper” will make his return, but June sounds pretty early considering the damage.
Stay tuned.