Robert Whittaker addresses possible trilogy fight with Yoel Romero

UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker now holds two wins over fearsome middleweight contender Yoel Romero. Both, however, were competitive and truly thrilling fights. Given the close nature of the pair’s two fights — particularly the latter, which headlined UFC 225 last weekend — there’s been widespread chatter about a potential third fight between the two. Whittaker, however, isn’t so sure a third fight is necessary.

The Australian champion addressed a potential trilogy fight with Romero on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

“When Rogan asked me [about a third fight] in the Octagon the other night, he said ‘rubber match’ and for one, I have never heard of the term rubber match so he caught me off guard there,” Whittaker said (transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMAMania). “Second, I had just beat the boogeyman of the division twice back-to-back. I don’t think it’s how the division, UFC conducts business to get the champion to fight one guy, who on both occasions doesn’t make weight for a championship fight, back-to-back-to-back. Like, am I going to fight Yoel Romero forever?”

Whittaker also explained why agreed to fight Yoel Romero at UFC 225 despite Romero’s weigh-in miss.

“I had told other people that [I wouldn’t take the fight], but I was more trying to get my opponent to think about it and take a little more seriously,” he said. “I’m a professional in all the things I do, and when I sign the contract and it says 185, I make sure I am 185.”

“I’ll get in bright and early and make sure I am one of the first people on the scales. The thing is, I didn’t need to take the fight and I could have walked way with my purse money and not taken the fight. I had a right to do that. But the thing was I had a lot of fans here and Chicago was super pumped to see the main event and a lot of people bought the PPV to watch the rematch between me and Romero. At the end of the day I’m a fighter and I just told myself I would take this fight. Someone was going to get into a fight.”

Do you think we’ll see Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero fight in the future?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/11/2018.