Robert Whittaker is determined to derail the Khamzat Chimaev hype train.
‘The Reaper’ missed out on his opportunity to do so in June after Chimaev bowed out of their UFC Saudi Arabia headliner due to an undisclosed illness. Now, the two are scheduled to meet this October when the promotion heads back to Abu Dhabi for UFC 308.
‘Borz’ stormed into the UFC in 2020, earning three wins in the span of eight weeks. Looking like the next big thing in MMA, Chimaev’s career quickly stalled out after he was dealt a debilitating bout of COVID-19. Since then, the undefeated Chechen has seen no less than six of his previously scheduled fights scrapped, a majority of which were related to his health issues.
Still, the UFC has no plans of discontinuing its push of Chimaev.
Recently, Whittaker revealed that he specifically requested his previously scheduled scrap with Chimaev be rebooked, seeing it as the ultimate opportunity to disrupt the promotion’s plans and establish himself as the next in line at 185.
“That’s not how the business works – unfortunately, the business isn’t completely run on merit,” Whittaker explained on the MMArcade Podcast, sharing how he believes that the UFC is desperately trying to push Chimaev into title contention.
“Chimaev is a hard fight, he’s obviously a big draw especially over there in Abu Dhabi… And I think the UFC story-wise wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion… They want to see Chimaev at the top of the ladder and in that [title] picture. But I love disrupting their plans, I love derailing their stories and that’s why I took the fight – did you know I asked for the fight? Straight after the last one, I saw there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, so the timeline fits perfectly.”
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 Confident He’s Going to ‘Beat and Smash’ Khamzat Chimaev
After Chimaev bailed out of their headliner in Riyadh, Whittaker was paired up with middleweight prospect Ikram Aliskerov. Less than two minutes into their clash, ‘The Reaper’ blasted Aliskerov with a vicious uppercut followed by some ground-and-pound, forcing the referee to step in and stop the bout.
It was his 17th overall victory inside the Octagon and his 10th career KO.
“I look forward to hard fights, I look forward to these fights and I know that if I beat Chimaev, there is nothing in my way to getting my belt back… And Chimaev, as dangerous as he is, I don’t go into these fights thinking about what I have to lose,” Whittaker added.
“Every fight is a risk, and I only go into fight because I have the confidence that I’m going to beat and smash whoever in front of me… And that doesn’t change with Chimaev.”
Watch the full podcast episode below:
