Robert Whittaker has given his take on Dricus Du Plessis earning a shot at Sean Strickland’s UFC Middleweight Championship.
UFC CEO Dana White promised that the winner of the UFC 294 clash between Khamzat Chimaev and Kamaru Usman would receive the next middleweight title shot. Chimaev won the bout, but suffered a torn hand ligament in the fight. As a result, Du Plessis will challenge Strickland in the main event of UFC 297 on January 20. I’ll be the first UFC pay-per-view event of 2024.
Robert Whittaker Shares Thoughts On UFC Booking Strickland vs. Du Plessis
During an appearance on Submission Radio, Robert Whittaker discussed the booking of Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis.
“I guess it cleared a lot of things up because the division is in a really crazy spot,” Whittaker said. “There’s so many fighters that are already busy or that are inactive or that are just sitting on the sidelines. The win-losses that we’ve had in the top five has just shuffled everything up. Then we have Chimaev and Usman coming in and fighting for a title shot, allegedly, just shaking everything up. To hear Dricus getting the title shot with Sean, I think it’s fair because he wasn’t in a lot of the talks for the next title shot with Sean.”
As far as an early prediction for the fight goes, the former UFC middleweight champion is leaning with the challenger.
“Off the cuff, I wanna say Dricus just ’cause like he did beat me, and then that gives me a path also just to get back off him sort of thing, but also I think both guys like making it a dog fight,” Whittaker said. “I don’t know. What can I say? How can I doubt Dricus when he beat me last time?”
Du Plessis defeated Whittaker via second-round TKO back in July. Only Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya hold victories over Whittaker at middleweight. Whittaker’s other career losses have come at welterweight.
Here is Robert Whittaker’s full appearance on Submission Radio:
