‘The Reaper’ wants a fight at International Fight Week in July
Robert Whittaker was scheduled to fight Paulo Costa at UFC 284 in Perth, Australia, but the bout didn’t go ahead after a contract dispute between ‘Borrachinha’ and the UFC. Costa claimed on his social media platform that the contract for the fight wasn’t confirmed, referring to it as ‘fake news.’
Whittaker was speaking to Ariel Helwani on the ‘MMA Hour’ this afternoon. Helwani asked why the UFC couldn’t find him somebody else to fight in Perth, given the event was in his home country.
”I don’t know. I was in talks with the UFC a lot, and it’s just the way the chips fell. Costa was playing silly buggers a bit. Speaking to the UFC, they didn’t have anybody [for me] to fight as the top 8 were already lined up to fight, having either just fought or due to fighting the month after. I guess that’s where it leaves me though, just sitting here waiting.”
‘The Reaper’ bounced back from a loss to Israel Adesanya in his last fight, defeating Marvin Vettori by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Tuivasa on Saturday, 3rd September, in Paris, France. Whittaker controlled the fight from start to finish, using his reach and boxing skills to keep Vettori at bay. The judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28 in favor of Whittaker.
Helwani stated that Whittaker should have been a shoo-in for Australia and asked Whittaker if it was a difficult period, which he confirmed it was, although he admitted he didn’t dwell on it too much.
”I’m in a funny position with what happened with Izzy and Pereira. I want to fight Izzy again, fight him specifically, and beat him for the title. I wanna fight Isreal, like, I’m going to beat Izzy. It’s funny how important it stood out to me. I’m in a position where they are happy for me to have that rematch with him.”
Whittaker said he’d seen the comments from the MMA community about saying he should give it up (in regards to keep fighting Israel). He raised a good point that Adesanya fought Alex Pereira four times (albeit twice in kickboxing), twice more than Whittaker.
Whittaker said he didn’t care who won the recent bout between Adesanya and Pereira as he didn’t have a ‘horse in the race.’ He went on to say Izzy has what he wants (the belt), so he is happy that Israel won as he is ‘hunting him down.’
‘The Reaper’ stated that he believes the losses to Israel have improved him as a fighter, and it motivates him to work harder to try and ‘solve that puzzle,’ which has led to him growing as a fighter.
”I wanna beat him up, but I also want the belt, and if he’s got both [the belt], then I’m happy.”
Helwani asked Whittaker why he was so certain that he would win a third showdown.
Going through that second fight and the worst result not happening, I realized after that first round; I got dropped in that first round because of how hesitant I was. After that first round, I realized, OK, it’s not going to play out like this; he’s not going to knock me out, my defence has improved, and I can take him down. It’s going to be a completely different dynamic going into that third round because the second fight was so close. I’m going to beat him.
Helwani asked about the possibility of Paulo Costa or Khamzat Chimaev being his next opponent. The former is no longer an option in Whittaker’s eyes due to Costa pulling out of two scheduled bouts with Whitttaker. With the latter (Chimaev), Whittaker said due to him not being ranked at Middleweight, it doesn’t seem feasible and said he wants to fight the top five guys and isn’t a fan of people sliding into the rankings.
Whittaker finds himself in a similar position to Max Holloway in that he has defeated most of the contenders in his division but has multiple losses against the current champion.
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