Robert Whittaker News

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2017

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 217, the world watched on as former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre returned from a four-year hiatus to defeat Michael Bisping and win the UFC middleweight belt. Of all the people watching on as St-Pierre made this triumphant return, none had quite the same interest as UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker – the man widely expected to be St-Pierre’s next opponent. While the ever-classy Whittaker was impressed with St-Pierre’s win, he did see some holes in the Canadian’s game – mainly his speed.

Justin Golightly - November 1, 2017

The UFC is coming back to Australia in February for UFC 221. According to a report by Perth Now, Robert Whittaker is scheduled to appear, which definitely makes sense for the hard-hitting Aussie. It was natural to assume that UFC interim middleweight champ Whittaker and whoever comes out the actual middleweight champion at UFC 217, would attempt to unify the titles at UFC 221. However, Michael Bisping put a cork in those plans if he’s still got the strap after this Saturday. “Yeah, yeah [UFC 221 on February 11th is a quick turnaround]. I’m not awfully keen on fighting down in Australia. I mean, my wife’s Australian. I’ve fought in Australia three or four times already from one career. My next fight, if I have any say in it, is going to be in Manchester. Obviously, I don’t own the UFC, but If I beat Georges [St-Pierre] I’d like to think I still get a bit of say in it. I’d like that to be in Manchester, but we’ll see.”

Justin Golightly - October 27, 2017

Last year, Derek Brunson squared off with hard-hitting Aussie Robert Whittaker and it didn’t exactly go his way. He came out like a man possessed, desperately wanting to get his fifth knockout in a row and the title shot that would come with it. Instead, he got his lights turned off by Robert Whittaker and the rest is history. Now Whittaker has an interim middleweight belt and will be waiting to unify against either Michael Bisping or Georges St-Pierre. It’s a loss that still haunts Brunson, who still believes he has what it takes to get the W against the interim champ. “I like to be aggressive, I like to finish fights. But I’ve been doing a better job of finding that balance. I’m a very smart guy also, when it comes to learning how to be more strategic and not pretty much destroy your hand in one fight. I think the one fight that cost me the most was the [Robert] Whittaker fight when I was super aggressive, but you look at that fight, I had him rocked the whole time. I’m sure he knows I could put him away also, but you don’t want to put yourself in those fifty-fifty positions. Let your skills be on show. I still wanna keep my aggressive ways and let mu skills be on display.”

Justin Golightly - September 20, 2017

Rising up slowly on the horizon is UFC’s biggest card of the year. UFC 217 will feature three title shots, headlined by Michael Bisping and the welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre, who’ll be making his return to challenge the middleweight throne. Orbiting just outside of all this, is Robert Whittaker. Ol’ Bobby Knuckles is on an eight-fight win streak, and beat both Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero in three months to earn the interim title. Whoever wins between Bisping and St-Pierre allegedly are contractually obligated to fight the heavy-handed Aussie. Confident and laid back, Robert Whittaker says he doesn’t care who ends up with the title. He’ll crush either one. “Before I got the interim belt, I always had my eyes set on the prize, which is that UFC gold. How I get there doesn’t bother me. I’m either going to to plow a path through the division to get there. I’ve always been open to fight anyone, still am, but I want that belt and I need to fight [Michael] Bisping. So, whatever happens between Bisping and Georges [St-Pierre], let them play around a little bit, but I’ll be ready for either one of ’em.”

Justin Golightly - August 12, 2017

The way that the UFC’s middleweight division has been booked has caused a lot of fighters to get pissed off. Michael Bisping and his forever-upcoming fight with Georges St-Pierre created a log jam that had domino effects far beyond what people could have imagined. At one point, fighters like Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero were on strike. Jacare Souza used the situation to leverage a better contract, while Gegard Mousasi left for Bellator. The new interim middleweight  champion Robert Whittaker doesn’t seem to care though. “It’s worked in my favor with that fight being scheduled. I have to fight Michael — there’s no one I also can fight — so with that, the earliest I can realistically fight is early next year anyway. They [the UFC] knew I couldn’t fight until early next year and Michael wanted that fight with Georges really badly. So, to me it’s perfect and there’s no guarantees what’s going to happen. I’m happy to fight Georges as much as I am to fight Bisping.” — Robert Whittaker speaking to FOX Sports Australia.

bjpenndotcom - July 21, 2017

Earlier this month in the main event of UFC 213, Robert Whittaker realized a dream as he defeated Yoel Romero via unanimous decision to claim the interim UFC middleweight title, and secure himself a fight with middleweight champion Michael Bisping. For Robert Whittaker, the fight was not without its share of difficulties. Early on in the fight, Whittaker appeared to hyperextend his knee, and as commentator Joe Rogan pointed out, was noticeably unsteady on the leg. Despite that, Whittaker put on an impressive display as he stuffed the Olympian’s takedowns, and continued to out-strike Romero.

Russell Ess - July 12, 2017

UFC 213 crowned a new UFC interim middleweight champion as Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker battled in a five-round interim title fight. It was a classic matchup with the two competing in a grueling fight that went the distance where judges ruled Whittaker the new interim champion of the middleweight division. With a middleweight title unification bout against undisputed champion Michael Bisping on the horizon, we may not see the fight take place until next year as Whittaker’s injured knee needs to be cleared by an orthopedic doctor or else face a medical suspension till January 2018.

Tom Taylor - July 9, 2017

Last night, in the main event of UFC 213, Kiwi-Australian star Robert Whittaker captured a unanimous decision win from the streaking Yoel Romero, and won the UFC interim middleweight title as a result. In the moments after this impressive win, the 26-year-old interim champion was joined in the cage by the 38-year-old undisputed champ, Michael Bisping. As is expected any time Bisping gets ahold of the mic, a memorable moment ensued.

Chris Taylor - July 8, 2017

UFC 213 Results: Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker squared off for the UFC’s interim middleweight title in the main event of tonight’s UFC 213 pay-per-view card in Las Vegas.

Russell Ess - July 6, 2017

Yoel Romero is set to fight for the UFC interim middleweight title at UFC 213 this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Romero, who is ranked #1 in the UFC middleweight rankings will be taking on #3 ranked Robert Whittaker.

Tom Taylor - July 5, 2017

When it was announced that UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping would next defend his title against Georges St-Pierre – a former welterweight champ who had never fought at middleweight before – there was widespread backlash. Much of this backlash came from the middleweight division’s top contenders, such as Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and Robert Whittaker. While this Bisping vs. St-Pierre fight has since been nixed, Whittaker recently reiterated that St-Pierre really had no business fighting for the middleweight title. He explained this feeling in a recent interview with Fox Sports Australia.

Russell Ess - June 27, 2017

Robert Whittaker is set for the biggest fight of his career as he is set to take on Yoel Romero in a UFC interim middleweight title fight at UFC 213. Coming off an impressive TKO stoppage over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Whittaker has worked his way up to an interim title bout by letting his performances in the Octagon do the talking and not by hyping himself up with trash talk.

Tom Taylor - May 24, 2017

Last night, news broke that UFC 213’s originally planned headliner – a bantamweight title fight between champ Cody Garbrandt and challenger TJ Dillashaw  – had officially fallen through. With this news, it was announced that Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko’s women’s bantamweight title fight had been promoted to the main event spot, and that the new co-main event would see Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker collide in an interim middleweight title fight. Shortly after this news broke, Whittaker and Romero took to their respective social media channels to make short but sweet statements on the fight. See the two fighters reactions to the news below:

bjpenndotcom - May 23, 2017

Two huge announcements were just made regarding July’s UFC 213 event in Las Vegas. The promotion announced that an interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will co-headline the July 8 event.

Tom Taylor - May 23, 2017

From the sounds of it, Michael Bisping’s much discussed middleweight title defense against former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will not happen. If it does happen, it won’t be until the fall, as St-Pierre will not be available until then. Though this might give the impression that Bisping will defend his title against Yoel Romero or Robert Whittaker sometime this summer, Bisping has instead announced that he’s dealing with some nagging injuries, and that he probably won’t be available for a fight for some time. To combat this complicated situation at middleweight, the UFC is reportedly considering a Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker interim middleweight title fight to keep the division moving. This fight, of course, would be of particular interest to the undisputed champion Bisping.

Russell Ess - April 24, 2017

There is a new name that was recently established as one of the threats to the UFC middleweight title. Robert Whittaker’s second round TKO over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at UFC on FOX 24 really put the division on notice and notched Whittaker up three spots on the official UFC rankings from the #6 spot to the #3 position falling right behind #1 ranked Yoel Romero and #2 ranked Luke Rockhold.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2017

Last night, on the main card of UFC on Fox 24, Australia-based Kiwi Robert Whittaker stepped onto the canvas with former Strikeforce middleweight king Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. The bout marked the biggest test of the 26 year old Whittaker’s career. Despite the scale of this test, Whittaker passed it with flying colors. First, he reversed an early Jacare takedown, and escaped back to his feet – something very few middleweights have been able to do against the dangerous BJJ whiz. From there, Whittaker began to pick his foe apart on the feet, dropping him once with a punch, and ultimately polishing him off with a head-kick and a storm of followup ground strikes.

Chris Taylor - April 15, 2017

Robert Whittaker put the UFC middleweight division on notice tonight in Kansas City scoring a second-round TKO victory over perennial division contender Ronadlo “Jacare” Souza. The win marked Whittaker’s seventh victory in a row and boosted the 26-year-old into immediate title contention.