issue 219

July 2025

Robert Whittaker walked into the UFC with no blueprint, no hype, and no country behind him, but he embraced a goal that nobody even knew existed.

Long before the UFC had held a stadium event Down Under. Before Australian fighters became fight card staples, there was Robert Whittaker. He quietly forged a path through an underappreciated MMA scene, representing a country with little to no MMA spotlight. His success inspired a new generation of fighters, but to understand the scope of his influence, you must go back to 2012. It all began on The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes. A pair of first-round knockout wins saw Whittaker advance to the finals and secure a UFC contract. 

“The biggest change was that I could do this for a living, you know?” says Whittaker. “The dream became a reality. It wasn't easy living the MMA fighter lifestyle to begin with. It was always something that was just kind of a hobby. You give a lot to it, but you still had another job that was paying the bills, and then all of a sudden, things became very different. Fighting became the job that paid the bills, so it was life-changing.” Whittaker became a fixture in the UFC, building a rep as one of the most entertaining fighters who went unbeaten from 2014 to 2017. 

BREAKOUT MOMENTS

Whittaker was the first time most Australians had heard of the UFC and made the country care. 

“Relative to before I signed with the UFC, I was getting so much more attention,” he says. “I was getting no media attention at all in the early days, and then, because the UFC is such a mega company, I was receiving some recognition from the mainstream media outlets. So, to go from zero to some is a huge change, right? But the sport was still pretty new in Australia at that time, you know. Mixed martial arts was still kind of breaking into the public consciousness. I mean, these days it still has a little bit of work to do to crack the mainstream, but it's comparative to back then, night and day.”

Whittaker often found himself drawn into debates about the legitimacy of the sport and its place in the entertainment spectrum. 

“Almost every interview that I took part in at the beginning of any sort of mainstream media outlet, it was always questions like, ‘How do you do it? Is it too violent?” he recalls. “Or they would just talk about how it's too barbaric. It was always kind of in that niche to begin with. But now, thankfully, it's left that stratosphere. Everyone, I think, understands that it is a sport and that we are the highest caliber of athletes involved, and it's good for everyone around us.”

THE LEGACY AND FUTURE

Whittaker’s career-defining moment came in 2017, when he beat Yoel Romero for the UFC interim middleweight title. After five hard-fought rounds, Whittaker emerged victorious on the scorecards and became the first Australian title holder.

“That was huge because it just brought so much spotlight to a sport that needed it here in Australia,” he says. “One of the highlights of my career, really, is just being able to bring eyes to the sport down under and sow the seeds for what it has developed into now. MMA has never been so accessible or as feasible to make a living out of as it has today.”

Another milestone came in 2019 when Whittaker headlined a pay-per-view event on home soil. While he lost the title to Israel Adesanya, Whittaker remains proud to have played a role.

“I was truly honored to be a part of it,” says Whittaker. “Just like every event that I've headlined in Australia, that one has added something special to my legacy. It’s something that I'm extremely proud of. I've been so blessed and fortunate to have had such a tenure in the UFC and to have had such a blessed career, and that was certainly one of the most memorable moments.”

A NEW PATHWAY TO EMULATE

In the years since, Australia has produced a stream of elite talent who all owe at least part of their journey to the groundwork Whittaker helped lay. Now, a new wave of Australian fighters is emerging, who are ready to make their mark on the global stage. Who will he be watching? 

“I think obviously Jack Della Maddalena is spearheading that next wave, right?” Whittaker says. “He's a welterweight champion at this point. After the work that he's put in, he's still so young, so to see him win the title so impressively was amazing. He's heading in the right direction. Jimmy Crute is still a young guy. Had a good win recently. We’ve got lots of young guys. There's a guy that I did some of my camp with, Jonathan Micallef. He's a recent addition to the UFC, and he's going to make some waves as well. I've been working with him a lot. There’s just so many exciting prospects Down Under at the moment. It's a great time to be an MMA athlete in Australia.”