Robert Whittaker was not phased by his last-minute change of opponent, as he was ready to face whoever the UFC put in front of him in order to provide for his family.
‘The Reaper’ was originally scheduled to face the rising Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia but just over a week away from fight night, Chimaev was forced to remove himself from the card due to ill health. Whittaker now faces the unranked, and highly avoided, Ikram Aliskerov in a Middleweight contest.
It’s not the first time in his career Whittaker has ended up inside the Octagon with a different opponent to the one he was originally scheduled to fight, but this is the first time there is such a difference in name and stature between the two scheduled opponents. When speaking to the media on Thursday, Whittaker explained that for him, it doesn’t make a difference who he is in there against. Once he has a date, he will show up. He said:
“I’m not really worried about, too much, who I'm fighting. You know, going to be honest, I'm here to fight, I was fit, I was ready and this will help provide for my family. So, I wanted everyone knew I wanted to fight, I'm here. So, I'm going to fight.”
Whittaker did admit that by the time the replacement opponent was offered to him, all of the work in the camp had already been done but he feels comfortable in the belief that a lot of what he has been working can still be utilized on Saturday.
“Honestly, by this stage in the in the camp, the all the work's been done. I’m fit, I'm strong, I'm sharp and all the skills that I've worked for Chimaev, you know, no skill is wasted, no skill is useless and a lot of it can be used in this fight. So all the work's been done. I'm ready.”
The belief is largely down to the way in which he and his team go about fight camps, focussing a lot more on what they can do to implement their game plan, rather than worrying too much about what their opponent may bring to the Octagon.
“They're very different opponents. Like, I think working the amount of wrestling I did for Chimaev will definitely come into play into this fight.
“A big thing has been about us pushing the game plan onto our opponents and that's been kind of a constant throughout my career. So I look forward to getting in there and seeing how he deals with the amount of tools and skill sets that I'm going to bring.”
On August 17, Dricus Du Plessis will put his Middleweight belt on the line against former Champion Israel Adesayna. Having shared the octagon with both men, and with a big win on Saturday potentially securing a rematching against the victor on August 17, Whittaker was asked how he believes the bout will play out. The 33-year-old feels that the current champ, Du Plessis could make it a difficult night’s work for ‘The Last Stylebender’.
“I think Dricus fighting Sean despite a level of pressure that he can put (on) to stop a pressure fighter like Sean - I thought that was pretty impressive.
“He's tough and dogged in that effect and then we saw Sean have a lot of success against Adesanya pushing forward, pushing that pace, being in his face. So you'd have to make the connections that, that is what Dricus going to do to Adesanya. Unless Adesayna has done something to counter that since the last time he crossed Sean's path, then it might be a long night.”
Watch the full interview below:
