More than two months have passed since Robert Whittaker suffered a stunning loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290, but it’s a night the former champion won’t soon forget.
“I don’t think I’m over it, because it pissed me off,” Whittaker admitted recently on The MMA Hour. “Like, that was a night that I didn’t turn up to fight, and that doesn’t sit well with me. And I don’t want to get over it, because I’m using that as fuel. I’ve been just locking myself in the gym, training myself to be better, to just take it to that next level.
“I don’t want to have this sort of end career. I do believe the best of me hasn’t yet come out, and yeah, I’m using it as fuel. I don’t want to forget it.”
Whittaker, 32, was a heavy betting favorite to defeat du Plessis and secure his third crack at now-former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya — and for good reason. Whittaker may be 0-2 against Adesanya, but he entered UFC 290 with a perfect 12-0 record as a UFC middleweight against every other contender not named “The Last Stylebender.” His title eliminator at UFC 290 was supposed to be Whittaker’s final step toward earning a final shot at revenge. But then du Plessis smashed through Whittaker in less than two rounds.
“Everything in hindsight is easy to point fingers at. I just know, personally, that night when I got in there, I just wasn’t thinking about the fight,” Whittaker said. “I didn’t feel myself, what for whatever reason that is. It hasn’t [happened before]. I guess that’s why it upsets me so much, is because there’s times I go into fights, it’s like with that first Israel fight, there’s times I go into fights and I give it a good, hard crack, and I come out short. And I understand that. It doesn’t take the brunt away from it, but I know I fought a good fight, and I went out there to the best of my capabilities at the time and gave it a good swing. I don’t feel that with the last fight, and that upsets me more than the loss ever could.
“All I know is that it was a tough way to get a kick up the ass,” he added. “It’s something that’s going to shape the rest of my career, and, you know, better now than later.”
Despite the loss, Whittaker remains confident that things could’ve ended differently if he’d entered UFC 290 with a healthier mindset toward the challenge that laid ahead.
“That’s why it hurts,” Whittaker explained. “That’s why I said, that’s why I’m upset so much for the loss. It isn’t because of just losing. It’s about not giving a good account of myself. And I went in there, and I know I can beat him. I know I can beat that guy. And this is with all respect, hats off to him, he showed up on the night and he beat me. But I know I could beat him. And I didn’t have my best foot forward, and it upsets me.
“It’s just the fuel that’s pushing me in the gym. I got back into the gym faster than I ever have and I’ve just been training like a madman, and it’s not training because I feel like that’s what I need to do. No, it’s training because I want to. I want to train, I want to get in there and become better and evolve and never let that happen again. And I’m excited. I do believe it was necessary, because I think it’s something that I needed to have happen for me to take that next leg up. Because every time I’ve lost, I’ve come back a much better fighter.”
Whittaker is now one of many contenders who finds himself in a curious place in the UFC middleweight division following Sean Strickland’s shocking upset of Adesanya at UFC 293.
Strickland’s title-winning performance turned the weight class upside-down and opened the door for many of Adesanya’s past opponents to reenter title contention. Whittaker is chief among those names, and while he knows he’s at least one or two good wins away from challenging for the belt again, he’s determined to not let his setback against du Plessis define the next chapter of his career. And he knows exactly what he wants next.
“I want to fight anyone — I want to find a top-five opponent, because that’s where I am,” Whittaker said. “I want to fight a top-five opponent. And mate, I just want to flog whoever they put in front of me. That’s where I am in the game right now. I am just training, I’m enjoying the training, and I’m itching at the bit to get in there and just put a beating on the next guy. And I’ll wait until until the UFC comes to me with a ticket.
“Because, you see, [rushing into something is] kind of how the July fight happened. And I feel rushing it like that and feeling the urgency to fight, to just fight because I can, kind of — I don’t know, it didn’t work like I had done my entire career, which is, my objective is to get to the top of the tree, get to the top of the pile. So I need to work towards that goal. So now I’m just going to fight whoever the UFC put in front of me, and just put on a good showing and get closer to that goal. Mate, I want that gold back, I want that strap back.”
“I’m not worried [who it is],” Whittaker added. “As long as he’s in the top five. I feel like I’ve earned the right to fight top-five guys. I’m putting a lot of good work in this division, and a top-five guy shows that I’m right there and wanting, I’m chasing that gold still.”
