Robert Whittaker wants a big name for his next light heavyweight fight, and a former champion is ready to answer the call.
In July, Whittaker successfully made his light heavyweight debut, finishing Nikita Krylov in the third round at UFC 329. The win immediately put “The Reaper” in the light heavyweight rankings, and now the former middleweight champion has his sights set on a top name in the 205-pound division.
“I’d love to get in there with Ank [Magomed Ankalaev],” Whittaker told the Believe You Me podcast. “I’d love to get in there with — well, Jan [Blachowicz] just had a loss, but I would have loved to jump in there with him. Bogdan would have been great. Anyone up. People keep throwing the name Costa out there, but I fought him before. There’s a lot of other guys to fight as well.”
Outside of Costa, there’s only one big caveat for who Whittaker will fight next: he’s not interested in scrapping with his training partners, Carlos Ulberg and Navajo Stirling.
“I won’t fight the boys that I train with,” Whittaker said. “If we reach a point where we’re one, two, and three with me, Carlos, and Nav, then I’m sure we can all sit down and find a way to get paid bank, but there’s a lot of people to fight. And I’ve still got some work to do for myself in the rankings. I’m enjoying the progression. I’m enjoying coming up and going through the rankings again. It feels like a new chapter because of that.”
Ulberg is the current light heavyweight champion, but is out of action for the foreseeable future with a leg injury. Stirling, meanwhile, just knocked out Jan Blachowicz at UFC Belgrade this past weekend. But while Whittaker might not be interested in fighting Stirling, the man he just stopped is ready to take on “Bobby Knuckles.”
On Thursday, Blachowicz posted a callout of Whittaker to social media.
“Hey Robert Whittaker! Let’s turn your words into action.”
Whittaker has yet to respond to Blachowicz’s offer.
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