Robert Whittaker gave the fight hook, and Michael Bisping made the Anthony Smith point. Whittaker wants Magomed Ankalaev after his first 205-pound UFC win, while Bisping said the Smith discussion still has to stay inside what is publicly known.
Whittaker stopped Krylov by third-round TKO at UFC 329 on July 11, 2026, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The win moved him to 28-9, with 12 knockout wins, 5 submission wins, and 7 first-round finishes on his UFC profile. It also gave him a fresh spot in the light heavyweight rankings after a middleweight run that included the UFC title, two fights with Israel Adesanya, the Yoel Romero wars, and wins over Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori, Jared Cannonier, Darren Till, Kelvin Gastelum, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Derek Brunson, and Uriah Hall.
Speaking with Michael Bisping and Paul Felder on Believe You Me, Whittaker made it clear that the Krylov fight was not a one-off. He wants ranked names, and Ankalaev is the one he kept circling back to.
“People keep throwing the name Coster out there, but I fought him before. There’s a lot of other guys to fight as well. I won’t fight the boys that I train with, you know. Um, if if we reach a point where we’re one, two, and three with me, Carlos, and and Nav, then I’m sure we can all sit down and find a way to get paid bank.”
“There’s a lot of people to fight, you know, and I’ve still got some work to do for my for myself in the rankings. I’m enjoying the progression. I’m enjoying coming up and going through the rankings again. It feels like a new chapter because of that.”
Watch the full podcast segment below.
Whittaker Says The Fire Was Fading At 185
Whittaker did not dress up the end of his middleweight run. Before the Krylov win, he had dropped back-to-back fights to Khamzat Chimaev and Reinier de Ridder, and the weight cut was clearly grinding him down. His answer on the podcast was blunt.
“The the fire was without a doubt petering out. The last couple middleweight fights, just the entire process, the camps were just not fun. like trying I’d still be 230 and then I’d be trying to get down to 185 and you know what you know how to do that you got to diet throughout the entire camp and that sucks.”
“Training room under under calorie not recovering because you’re not eating enough it’s it’s yeah it’s terrible so um I made a lot of changes after last loss the last loss at at middle weight had to make a lot of changes otherwise I was going to I was going to just wrap it up because didn’t enjoy it.”
The Krylov fight changed the math. Whittaker told the show he walked into the Octagon around 230 pounds, felt fast enough for the division, and settled in once the early nerves passed. It matched what he said after his UFC 329 light heavyweight debut felt “very much the same” as middleweight.
“Now I feel I feel a hunger to um you know, just to start that progressing up the ladder again, fight these names, writing the new chapter of the of light heavyweight up there and you know, just I’m just enjoying the whole thing again.”
The timing is why this matters. Carlos Ulberg owns the UFC light heavyweight title, but he is recovering from knee surgery after winning the vacant belt against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 327. Ankalaev, a former champion, returned at UFC Abu Dhabi and later called for Paulo Costa in an interim title fight after beating Bogdan Guskov. The division is messy enough that one ranked win can become a title argument fast.
“I think I think the divisions in that prime place where you’re one good fight from a win uh from from from being in that conversation. It is so lucrative to be here.”
“I I I want to get there. I wanna I wanna I wanna that’s on my bucket list still to to do. I’m enjoying writing this chapter and that’s what I want.”
Whittaker did not pretend he needs three more slow steps. He pointed straight at the top names and said the case would be obvious if he beat one of them.
“You put me against Ankh in December. I beat him. Who’s like the argument is there. It’s don’t even need a couple. It’s it’s there. You you beat Yuri. The argument is there.”
Asked which fight he preferred between Ankalaev and Prochazka, Whittaker picked the former champion from Dagestan. The reason was not disrespect. It was preparation.
“With Anki, like, okay, it’s a fighter. He’s very He’s technical. He’s very good, but I can I can break this down. I have something to work with. Yuri, you don’t know whether he’s going to do his entire camp in a black box or he’s doesn’t know what he’s going to do. That’s what makes him dangerous.”
“That That would be fun. I’d like that. I’d like that. I think that’d be a good fight.”
Prochazka still got plenty of love on the episode. Felder summed up why fighters have a strange respect for him even when nobody knows what his next week, camp, or fight style will look like.
“You can’t watch and just not appreciate just how genuine he is and like obviously leaves it all inside the Octagon. Does his own thing. Doesn’t care. He’s one of one and just doesn’t give a f*ck. I love that about him.”
That Prochazka lane is still moving on its own. He recently said the UFC offered him Costa for October or November, while Costa pushed back publicly, leaving that possible 205-pound matchup floating in the same crowded picture as Whittaker’s Ankalaev callout and the latest Jiri-Costa back-and-forth.
Bisping Podcast Also Addressed Anthony Smith
The episode opened with Anthony Smith, but Bisping and Felder repeatedly stressed that they did not have new case facts beyond the public filings, Smith’s family statements, and the court video. Bisping, a 30-9 retired fighter, UFC Hall of Famer, former UFC middleweight champion, and the first British UFC champion, kept the point narrow: the public has allegations, court video, family statements, and filings, not the full story. Smith is 39-22 after submitting Chase Sherman at Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA 9, and his UFC run included a 2019 light heavyweight title challenge against Jon Jones. Smith’s Nebraska case had already produced three felony charges, a $500,000 bond order with a no-contact condition, and later a public statement from his wife defending him.
“I think it’s no secret that everybody has seen the same things that we’ve seen and I think it’s pretty clear that that’s pretty much what we know too. Uh it is just what’s been released online through his wife making statements through Butler making statements and of course every site and the the reports and things like that. Other than that I don’t know any other information.”
“I I tell you what else might not have helped him, and I’m not defending him, but we got to wait until the story comes out. And his wife is defending him. His kids are defending him.”
“That’s why I think it’s really going to be important to see what what’s true, what is kind of seems maybe more exaggerated in just a writing of something like a report than what really happened because we don’t know.”
Bisping read the family statement during the show and then said the public still does not know enough to treat headlines as the full story.
“There’s not a lot I can say right now. I love Anthony with every ounce of my being. He’s a good man, a great dad, an incredible husband who loves us endlessly. Anyone that knows him can attest to that. They made a mental health struggle into something it wasn’t. I’m safe and always was safe. He should never uh he would never hurt me ever. I called for help to protect him from himself.”
“We don’t know the the ins and outs. We don’t know the facts. We know the the headlines. We know we seen him in court. That’s it.”
Smith remains presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Whittaker, meanwhile, is already past his first 205-pound test, and the next name matters. The Krylov finish put him into the light heavyweight conversation; an Ankalaev fight would show whether this new chapter is just a successful reset or a real title path.
