Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has firmly shut the door on the possibility of returning to welterweight, but he has left another door ajar…
Whittaker will enter the new year off the back of a crushing defeat, having been submitted in the opening round by a brutal face crank at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev in Abu Dhabi this past October.
While wins earlier in the year over Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov had the Australian approaching a chance to regain the 185-pound crown, “The Reaper” is now out of the championship conversation for the time being.
And when he returns in 2025, it seems Whittaker is pondering the prospect of inserting himself into a different one.
During a recent episode of his MMArcade Podcast, Whittaker noted that a return to welterweight — the division he went 3-2 in under the UFC banner before switching to middleweight — is not on the cards. A move up, however, could be.
“Me, I wouldn’t go down. I can’t go down,” Whittaker said. “I’m still playing with the idea of going up to light heavy, dude. I’m a big dude, much bigger than people think I am. I don’t know.”
Should Whittaker follow through on that, he’d be chasing a man he was previously in pursuit of at 185 pounds.
After a brief stint on the middleweight throne, Alex Pereira secured two-division glory in just his second fight at light heavyweight. He’s since defended the gold on three occasions in 2024, establishing himself as one of the promotion’s leading stars.