Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker wants to derail Khamzat Chimaev’s hype train.
‘The Reaper’ is fresh off his return to the cage earlier this summer in Saudi Arabia. While Robert Whittaker was set to face Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of the card, ‘Borz’ was forced out. Due to the Chechen suffering from an illness, the former champion wound up facing Ikram Aliskerov.
Despite a lot of hype about the former sambo champion, Robert Whittaker scored a first-round knockout victory. Despite some brief talk about the Aussie fighting for gold next, he’s instead booked his return to the cage for October. On the UFC 308 main card, Whittaker will face Khamzat Chimaev in a re-booked matchup.
Speaking on a recent edition of his MMArcade Podcast, ‘The Reaper’ previewed the bout. There, Robert Whittaker revealed that he was actually the one who approached the UFC about the matchup. After knocking out Aliskerov in June, he contacted the promotion about re-booking the fight with Khamzat Chimaev.
Former champion Robert Whittaker discusses UFC 308 clash against Khamzat Chimaev
While Robert Whittaker knows the Chechen will be a tough fight for him, he believes he can be the one to finally hand him a loss. The middleweight added that it seems like the UFC wants Khamzat Chimaev to be a future champion. He hopes to spoil their plans in Abu Dhabi later this year.
“[Khamzat] Chimaev is a hard fight.” Robert Whittaker stated on the podcast, discussing his UFC 308 return. “He’s obviously a big draw, especially over there in Abu Dhabi… I think that the UFC, storywise, wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion or whatever. They want to see Chimaev at the top of the ladder. They want to see him in that [title] picture. But, I love disrupting their plans, I love derailing their stories and that’s why I took the fight.”
He continued, “You know, I asked for this after my last fight. I saw there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, the timeline fights perfectly. I was like ”I’ll fight Chimaev again, let’s do it again, just make sure he turns up’.”
What do you make of these comments from the former UFC middleweight champion? Do you think Robert Whittaker will defeat Khamzat Chimaev later this year?