Robert Whittaker embarks on a new journey at UFC 329.
The former UFC middleweight champion makes his long-anticipated jump up to light heavyweight this Saturday when he takes on veteran Nikita Krylov at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Whittaker has spent the past 12 years competing at 185 pounds (and at welterweight before that), and so far he is thrilled with how much a less stressful weight cut has changed his life.
“The middleweight Rob Whittaker chapter has closed,” Whittaker said at UFC 329 media day on Wednesday. “I’m very happy as a light heavyweight. It is honestly life-changing. I recommend it to anybody. … I still do have to cut weight, it’s just not as brutal. It’s not as bad.
“I was able to fuel myself much more during the camp. Recovery was much higher. My moods were better. Everything was just better for it.”
Whittaker has remained a top 10 contender at middleweight in recent years, but has struggled to find consistency in the cage. The 35-year-old is currently on a rare two-fight losing streak, with a split decision loss to Reinier de Ridder and a submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev.
As painful as those defeats were, it was the discouraging processes leading up to those fights that convinced Whittaker he had to make a dramatic change.
“A big prompt into why I made so many changes is that I didn’t enjoy the last couple of camps and the last couple of fights and things had to change otherwise I wasn’t going to continue,” Whittaker said. “So I made the changes. I moved to light heavyweight. I did the backend of my camp at City Kickboxing, just for the bodies and stuff. I brought my entire tribe with me to the fight itself and it really is life-changing for me. I’m enjoying the journey.
“Normally by this period I’m hungry, I’m water loading, I’m just longing to go home, I’m missing my wife and kids. I guess I was just counting down the days until it’s over, where I feel fighting requires such a higher degree of focus and attention that you can’t be looking past it. So to want to just go home is kind of splitting my attention, so I’m in a really good place right now.”
Even better news for Whittaker and his fans, he believes the move to light heavyweight should prolong his career.
“Let’s be honest, I don’t want to be fighting for another five years by any means, I’ve got other things I want to do,” Whittaker said. “I want to play Masters soccer, things like that. But I definitely have a few more in me now because the way I was feeling after the last couple of fights, the camps, how drained I was for them, how much of a grind it was, dragging my feet to get to everything. Comparatively, I definitely have a new love and lease on the game.”
Whittaker was not given a layup for his first light heavyweight fight. Krylov is 9-7 competing in the UFC at 205 pounds and is coming off of a knockout of Modestas Bukauskas this past January. He also holds wins over two-time title challenger Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, and Johnny Walker.
Regardless of Saturday’s result, Whittaker plans to stick it out in a new division, especially with some of his former foes having also made the move already.
“I don’t need validation,” Whittaker said. “I know this is my weight division. I’m never going back to middleweight. That fella is gone, let alone we have Chimaev, we have [Reinier] de Ridder, we have [Paulo] Costa, they’re all light heavyweights now. So I’ve already danced with some of them.”
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