After his quick finish of Ikram Aliskerov in Riyadh, Robert Whittaker is hoping to land a spot on the UFC’s upcoming card in Perth.
Lurking in the shadows of the middleweight top 10 for the last few years, Whittaker made a pretty big statement inside Kingdom Arena, dispatching one of the division’s most exciting prospects in less than two minutes and immediately thrusting himself back into title talks.
Having suffered little to no damage, ‘The Reaper’ is looking to make a quick turnaround by either competing at UFC 305 on August 17 in The Land Down Under or serving as a backup for the event’s massive middleweight headliner between reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis and former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya.
However, before any of that can happen, Whittaker will have to take care of a lingering issue that popped up right before he made his way to Saudi Arabia.
“Rob has a really bad abscess that flared up a week before flying out,” Whittaker’s manager Titus Day told Fox Sports Australia. “He had headaches, tooth pain, it was like he’d been kicked in the side of the head. He couldn’t train, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. It was f*cking painful.
“The whole side of his head was in pain so we had to rush him in for emergency surgery” (h/t MMA Fighting).
Robert Whittaker won’t commit to UFC 305 return until undergoing more surgery
Fortunately, the post-surgery swelling subsided enough for him to step inside the Octagon on Saturday night and deliver another highlight-reel-worthy performance. With more surgery scheduled to be done within the next few weeks, Whittaker and his team are in wait-and-see mode before making any further commitments to the UFC.
“Right now, regarding Perth, it’s just too early to say,” Day said. “Obviously there was a lot of talk on the night about Rob being the backup for that UFC 305 main event. There was also talk about him fighting somebody else, too. And potentially, he could still do either of those. He’ll have to meet with the team and talk it through.”
Whittaker has now won four of his last six fights, his two losses coming against the men who will headline UFC 305 later this year.
