Robert Whittaker had a tough time getting an opponent for his subsequent battle.
Whittaker made his mild heavyweight debut in July and scored a TKO win over Nikita Krylov. The previous UFC middleweight champion had been attempting to get one other battle however he had a tough time getting opponents.
Whittaker is now set to return at UFC Sydney on Feb. 6 within the co-main occasion in opposition to Bogdan Guskov, which is later than he wished.
“I wished to get in there sooner; I wished to get in round that November or December interval,” Whittaker stated to Ariel Helwani. “We had been attempting to get dates and names, and guys weren’t leaping on the bit to leap up and battle. February was simply across the nook once we realized someone would take the battle and tried to get one thing lined up.”
‘It didn’t work for them’
A part of the explanation why Whittaker isn’t combating till February is the truth that a number of fighters turned him down till Guskov accepted the battle.
“I felt grateful; we threw out the battle to a bunch of different guys, and it didn’t work for them,” Whittaker added. “After we lastly acquired the identify they usually stated, ‘Hey, Bogdan needs to get in Sydney subsequent yr,’ I used to be like, ‘Hell yeah.’ I haven’t fought in Sydney for 12 years. That was my middleweight debut… It labored out higher in a method.”
Fortunately, Guskov did settle for the battle. He’ll tackle Whittaker within the co-main occasion in a enjoyable battle at mild heavyweight. If Whittaker wins, he will likely be near a title shot, so the stakes are excessive.
Whittaker is 27-9 as a professional and is coming off a TKO win over Krylov. Earlier than that, he misplaced back-to-back fights to Reinier de Ridder and Khamzat Chimaev in his ultimate fights at middleweight.
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