Robert Whittaker came in clutch at the UFC’s big debut card in Saudi Arabia, and now he may do the same at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.
The former champion and middleweight contender accepted a last-minute change in opponents Saturday, knocking out the tough but untested Ikram Aliskerov in the first round of their Riyadh main event (watch the highlights here).
Following the big win, “Bobby Knuckles” sounded excited at the prospect of playing the role of backup in case anything happened to UFC 305’s headline title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya.
Robert Whittaker wants to be a back-up fighter for #UFC305 in Perth. He said that it would be silly for him not to do.
He prefers to fight Dricus Du Plessis, but Adesanya is still on his target.
YT @espnmma pic.twitter.com/PrmuhsTkvK
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) June 23, 2024
“Perth is around the corner from me so, it would be silly for me not to be a backup fighter in that regard,” he told Michael Bisping during a post-show interview on ESPN. “Especially with the win that I had tonight and the shape that I’m in. It just makes logical sense for me.”
As for who he’d prefer to fight on August 17th?
“I’d like to fight Dricus, run it back with Dricus because I felt like I let myself down there,” Whittaker said. “I’d like to run that back. But Izzy is still on the list as well. So, either, either.”
He pulled things back a little during the UFC Saudi Arabia post-fight press conference, saying it was a decision that would have to be made amongst Team Reaper.
“I do need to go back, to talk to my team,” he added. “I took this fight short notice, kind of pushed a lot of things around, so I want to go back and talk to my team.”
A man’s gotta get paid, so it makes sense for him to not be too eager to step in without a decent deal in place. But Dana White sounded very eager to lock up a solid Australian backup given how tumultuous things have been lately.
“I’m not kidding you, nobody in the top 15 wanted to fight [Aliskerov],” White said about Whittaker’s performance in Saudi Arabia. “This guy would’ve been the co-main event last weekend. He had a full camp. He came in. Khamzat calls this guy one of the toughest fights he’s ever had and Whittaker made it look easy tonight. He looked like a stud. We’d love to have him [as backup for UFC 305].”
