“As close as someone can”- Robert Whittaker almost retired from MMA after his brutal loss at UFC 243
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Robert Whittaker
UFC 271 takes off next week and is headlined by one of a kind rivalry. Former UFC Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker will take on Israel Adesanya who’s the current champion with 3 title defences. Both of these fighters come from the Oceania region- with Whittaker from Australia and Adesanya from New Zealand- and both the fighters don’t like each other as well.
Besides that, it’s safe that both the fighters are elevated way over the rest of the middleweight division when it comes to skillset. Ever since their first fight which Adesanya won via second-round KO, both the fighters went separate ways in the same division for 2 years. Whittaker and Adesanya both went on 3 straight wins in the middleweight division. Whittaker secured wins over Darren Till, Kelvin Gastelum and Jared Cannonier and Adesanya took wins over Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero and Marvin Vettori.
Robert Whittaker says he wasn’t himself leading up to the first Adesanya fight
In his interview with FOX Sports Australia, Whittaker talks about how close he was to call it retirement in his career after his loss to Adesanya back in 2019 at UFC 243, which was, by the way, the highest attended UFC PPV event in history.
“After the loss to Adesanya… I took a step to the left, okay?” says Whittaker “So I left the game and I didn’t know whether I would come back to the game because at the time I wasn’t enjoying anything. I didn’t enjoy the lead up to the fight, I didn’t enjoy the fight week, I didn’t enjoy media, I didn’t enjoy myself day to day…
I had to understand why I was doing things, how I was doing things, why I wanted to do things the way I wanted to go, that sort of thing… [I was] as close as someone can be giving up the game,“ he concluded.
What do you make of Robert Whittaker’s confession of hanging the gloves for once and for all? To love a sport that’s already brutal and then take care of the fight business obligations can take one big mental toll on anyone. Perhaps these are the reasons when fighters deserve some compensation after their career is over or if they decide to end it anytime soon. Who do you think wins between Adesanya and Whittaker at UFC 271?
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
(1386 Articles Published)