Robert Whittaker isn’t about to let Khamzat Chimaev off the hook.
The Reaper’ was originally scheduled to square off with Chimaev in the UFC Saudi Arabia headliner on June 22. Unfortunately, the fight fell through after ‘Borz’ withdrew due to becoming “violently ill” with an undisclosed illness. Whittaker went on to keep his main event spot, facing short-notice replacement Ikram Aliskerov at the event.
After brutalizing the middleweight prospect in the opening round and securing his second win of the year, Whittaker is determined to finish what he started with the undefeated Chechen sensation.
The two will tussle this October when the promotion heads back to Abu Dhabi for UFC 308. As it turns out, Whittaker is the one who requested the rescheduled date.
Appearing on the MMArcade podcast, Whittaker admitted to asking for the Chimaev fight this fall as it presented him with the perfect opportunity to not only test himself on enemy territory but to potentially disrupt the promotion’s plans of pushing ‘Borz’ to the top of the division.
“Unfortunately, the business isn’t completely run on merit, and a lot of it is, but there are a lot of times and moments when it just is not,” Whittaker said. “Chimaev is a hard fight; he’s obviously a big draw, especially over there in Abu Dhabi… I think the UFC, story-wise, wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion or whatever. They want to see Chimaev at the top of the ladder; they want to see him in that picture. But I love disrupting their plans; I love derailing their stories, and that’s why I took the fight.
You know, I asked for the fight straight after my last fight. I saw there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, the timeline fits perfectly, and I was like, I’ll fight Chimaev again. Let’s do it again, just make sure he turns up” (h/t MMA News).
Robert Whittaker explains why he took the Khamzat Chimaev fight, and says he actually asked the UFC to fight Chimaev
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Robert Whittaker sees chimaev as the best path back to uFC gold
In the last decade, Robert Whittaker has only lost to two men, Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis.
With Du Plessis set to defend the 185-pound title against ‘The Last Stylebender’ at UFC 305, ‘The Reaper’ believes a win over a dangerous opponent like Chimaev will leave the promotion with no choice, but to reward him with a future shot at this month’s big winner in Perth.
“I look forward to hard fights, and I know that if I beat Chimaev, there is nothing in my way to getting my belt back. Chimaev, as dangerous as he is, I don’t go into these fights thinking about what I have to lose. Much like how I took the fight with Ikram, I don’t look at the fights and think, ‘Oh man, it’s too big of a risk.’
“Every fight’s a risk, you know, and I only go into fights because I have the confidence I’m going to beat and smash whoever is in front of me, and that doesn’t change with Chimaev.”
Assuming ‘Borz’ actually shows up on Fight Night, it’ll be his first time competing since a majority decision win over Kamaru Usman last October. Since storming into the UFC with three wins in the span of eight weeks, Chimaev has barely averaged one fight per year and has seen six of his previously scheduled bouts scrapped, a majority of them the result of his own medical issues.
UFC 308 will be Whittaker’s third time fighting in 2024 after earning wins over Paulo Costa and the aforementioned Ikram Aliskerov. Overall, ‘The Reaper’ is 26-7 in his mixed martial arts career with 17 of his wins coming inside the Octagon.
