Still riding high off whipping the Scottish crowd into a frenzy last weekend, Robert Whiteford is calling his next shot.
The charismatic featherweight wants another chance to fight Dennis Siver after Whiteford got injured before their potential bout last October in Sweden. And Whiteford wants it to happen at UFC Fight Night in Ireland on Oct. 24.
“Bring him over to Dublin and I will smash him into the ground,” Whiteford told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “Mark my words.”
Whiteford said he injured his back and his knee heading into what would have been an important fight against Siver. At the time, it was a chance to showcase his ability against a ranked featherweight. But the opportunity never came. Siver ended up edging out a debuting Charles Rosa via unanimous decision. The bout won Fight of the Night.
“He was so lucky that I never made it to Stockholm,” Whiteford said. “So lucky.”
Whiteford (12-2) got back into the Octagon last weekend and experienced the greatest moment of his career, knocking out Paul Redmond in the first round at UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Leites in Glasgow. He was the first Scottish fighter on the first UFC card in Scotland and when he won, the SSE Hydro went ballistic. Whiteford jumped on top of the cage, came down on the other side and dived into the first row of the stands.
“I landed on the moon on Saturday night and I’m still not back yet, but I’m always high on life anyway,” Whiteford said. “I f*ckin’ love it.
“I lost my mind. I don’t know what the f*ck happened. F*ck knows what happened. One minute I was on top of the cage, the next minute I was f*ckin’ in the crowd. I didn’t even know who the people were or nothing.”
It was a long time coming for the UFC’s first Scottish fighter, who made his debut in 2013. Whiteford said there was a time when his local paper in Armadale, West Lothian wouldn’t even write about him. After his big win over Redmond, Whiteford ended up in every major paper across Scotland.
“The local paper can shove it up their ass,” Whiteford said.
Whiteford, 33, trains now at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., so he has been away from his home country for a bit. But he never doubted for one second the scope of the UFC’s first event there. It has been his dream to bring the UFC to Scotland since he started MMA after a solid run as a judoka. Whiteford said the Hyrdo sold out in minutes and even the weigh-ins were in front of a capacity crowd.
“I knew that sh*t was gonna go crazy,” Whiteford said. “You couldn’t tell me. I’m Mr. Crazy here and the Scottish people are just as crazy as me.”
Whiteford has now won two straight in the UFC after dropping his debut to Jimy Hettes on Oct. 26, 2013 in England. Whiteford said he got the call on short notice for that fight and had to drop 32 pounds in five days.
There were no such problems coming in to fight Redmond, a highly touted Irish prospect. And Whiteford wants to continue his run at 145 against Siver in Dublin. He feels like there is some unfinished business there.
“It was unfortunate that I got injured heading into the Siver fight,” Whiteford said, “or he would have been on the receiving end of that f*cking left hand on Saturday night.”