Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was left badly damaged by Khamzat Chimaev in 2024, but something good seemingly came from the difficult result.
Whittaker returns in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Abu Dhabi card, as he looks to reignite his ambitions of a second stint on the 185-pound throne six years after being unseated by Israel Adesanya.
‘The Reaper’ looked to be charging toward just that midway through last year. After Whittaker beat Paulo Costa at UFC 298, he ran through the highly touted Ikram Aliskerov to close out the promotion’s debut in Saudi Arabia.
But the undefeated ‘Borz’ proved a hurdle too tall at UFC 308 in October. In the opening round, Chimaev submitted Whittaker with a crushing face crank that left the fan-favorite Australian requiring dental surgery to repair displaced front teeth.
Though he may not have thought so while sitting in the dentist’s chair, Whittaker would soon experience the unexpected positive that came from a devastating setback in the Middle East.
Robert Whittaker has a ‘new vigor’ for UFC Abu Dhabi thanks to Khamzat Chimaev
During an interview for ESPN after the UFC Abu Dhabi Ceremonial Weigh-ins, Whittaker previewed his first appearance in the Octagon since falling to a gruesome fate that ultimately secured Chimaev his maiden title shot this year.
Having been too complacent and relaxed as Chimaev set up his fight-ending move, Whittaker says he returned to training with an improved mindset — something he will look to show against a submission specialist in Reinier de Ridder.
“I went into training and I went into practice with like, a new vigor of not giving up any positions,” Whittaker said.
“Obviously, with Chimaev, I shouldn’t have been in that position, the way I lost. I shouldn’t have been there to begin with. I shouldn’t have let it get that far. I should have fought every stage of that opportunity.
“I just went back to training with that sort of mentality. (Bad) habits creep in, and I wanted to correct that.”
Khamzat Chimaev is not the loss Robert Whittaker wants to get back the most
Whittaker is convinced that he could and should have performed much better against Chimaev. Despite that, the result against the Chechen is not the setback that ‘The Reaper’ wants to avenge the most.
During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Whittaker pointed to his Dricus du Plessis loss at International Fight Week in 2023 as the defeat he wishes to “correct.”
“I’d like to fight him (Du Plessis) again. That would be the icing on the cake,” Whittaker said.
“Honestly, I do think I’m better than him. I think I’m better than everybody, even when I lose, right? It’s mainly that in our first pairing, I let myself down in that fight, and I want to correct that. I didn’t have the right headspace to go and beat him.
“I want to correct that more than any of my other losses,” Whittaker added. “That’s the fight I didn’t like feeling like that.”
Two of the three men to have beaten Whittaker at middleweight are next set to meet with the title on the line. Chimaev will challenge Du Plessis in the main event of UFC 319 in Chicago on August 16.
If he can get the job done against De Ridder at UFC Abu Dhabi, ‘The Reaper’ will no doubt be paying close attention to how that bout unfolds, as he looks to do what he can to challenge either man in a rematch down the line.