“It’s Hard to Defend”: Robert Whittaker Reveals What Surprised Him in His Fight Against Khamzat Chimaev

Almost 4 months after Khamzat Chimaev practically broke his jaw, former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker claims the face crank that made it possible didn’t surprise him. It was Chimaev’s 2 mts dive to take him down that the Aussie fighter found “hard to defend“.

In a conversation with Ariel Helwani, Whittaker claims that everything else was just part of the game. He wasn’t expecting the face crank to come down as soon as it did but that also was a part of the parcel, he reckons.

“He was sticky but we had trained for sticky guys… We knew this. I trained for it. I got ragdolled most of the camp…But it was the initial takedown, I guess, that surprised me the most. Because the guy shot from like 2 mts away and honestly a foot off the ground.”

Wrestling was never his forte but Whittaker still possessed the technical prowess that had historically stopped him from being a victim of ground and pound. He had prepared for Chimaev with an emphasis on that and hoped to complement it with his unusual speed and deceptive angles.

Chimaev, on the other hand, was coming off a series of illnesses that had seen him withdraw from fights multiple times. His gameplan was going to be what it has always been- shift into the fifth gear from the get-go and shoot for takedowns.

So if his opponents had poor takedown defense or were inexperienced grapplers, Chimaev would just drown them on the mat. And it was open season from that point.

And that is exactly what happened at UFC 308. Chimaev shot for a double leg and Whittaker was on his back even before he could throw his first punch. Then came the face crank and it pushed Whittaker’s teeth off his jaw and into the mouth. And that was that!

The fight was over in under 4 minutes of the first round. Unfortunately, Whittaker’s day only got worse as Daniel Cormier shared a picture of his bashed-up teeth on social media and it went viral.

Why would DC do that?

Whittaker often asks himself the same question. But for now, he’s just happy to vent it all out to Helwani.

“I was super annoyed. It’s such a scummy thing to do. The doctor took a photo of my mouth and said, I am just going to show it to Dana so that he knows what’s up. And then DC took a photo of the other guy’s phone to post all over socials! Is that not scummy?”

DC actually shared the picture almost immediately after the doctors went into the octagon to check on Whittaker. It was then covered extensively across MMA media houses. Even veterans of the sport spent hours discussing how it must have happened and marveled at Chimaev’s power on their podcasts.

Imagine having the worst moment of your professional career going viral!

So, it is not difficult to empathize with Whittaker in this case. In any case, this is going to make up for some epic banter when he meets DC next.