Robert Whittaker Confesses to ‘Never Having Heard’ of Ikram Aliskerov Before Accepting Him as Replacement for Khamzat Chimaev

If you haven’t heard of Ikram Aliskerov, it’s okay. Robert Whittaker didn’t know who he was either, and he is about to fight him in the octagon in Saudi Arabia.

Aliserov is replacing Khamzat Chimaev after the Swede was hospitalized due to a violent illness. Needless to say, Chimaev was a big name and his absence would hurt the company.

It also doesn’t help that Aliserov has had only 3 fights in the UFC and that too against no so high-profile fighters. As a matter of fact, Whittaker is the biggest name on his resume come June 22, 2024.

Speaking of which, Whittaker has just revealed that he had never even heard of Aliskerov before their scheduled fight, which is not necessarily a good thing for the former champion. Fight camps are very specifically tailored to fighters, weight class, fighting styles, and opponents.

So, if you don’t know much about who you are fighting or haven’t seen a lot of them in action, it’s unchartered territory for everyone involved. Whittaker also echoed similar sentiments ahead of the fight.

“Ikram brings a different threat to the table. I hadn’t heard of him or seen him fight before that so mate sometimes you just gotta take things as they come.”

Meanwhile, the former middleweight champion isn’t particularly worried about the last-minute change to the lineup, he is just thankful to be fighting in a week’s time.

No one was willing to replace Chimaev on such short notice

The Australian spoke about how he had flown across the world as it is what he has to do to put food on the table. Needless to say, not being able to fight would have put a dent in his plans.

And his worst fears almost came true there for a moment, that is until Aliskerov put pen to paper.

“Mate, there was no thought to not fight. That is my job, that is what I flew across the world to do, and that is how I put bread on the table for my family…There weren’t a lot of names thrown around, nobody would take it, it was too short notice.”

 

Robert Whittaker reveals that nobody would take the fight against him since it was on such short notice:

“Mate, there was no thought to not fight. That is my job, that is what I flew across the world to do, and that is how I put bread on the table for my family…

There weren’t… pic.twitter.com/lKoPEZtRHb

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 14, 2024

On the other hand, with just one week to go for the fight, no one would have blamed Ikram Aliskerov for refusing to take on a former champion of a fearsome repute. However, the promise of a brighter future seems to have strengthened his resolve.