Following his incredible first round knockout win over Ikram Aliskerov in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event this past Saturday, Robert Whittaker’s team have revealed he underwent shock emergency surgery, just a few weeks prior to the fight.
Robert Whittaker was originally scheduled to take on Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of the UFC’s inaugural event in Saudi Arabia, but Chimaev withdrew from the fight a week prior due to illness.
The former middleweight champion has put himself back into the title conversation after derailing the dangerous Ikram Aliskerov, but he may have to wait for the culmination of Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya at UFC 305, before he knows whether he is next in line.
Robert Whittaker’s team reveals emergency surgery went down a few weeks out from fight
Although it seemed as though Chimaev was the one with all of the issues coming into the June 22 date, ‘The Reaper’s’ team have now revealed that the 33-year-old in fact underwent emergency surgery just a week before flying out to Dubai.
Whittaker was unable to complete the final few days of his fight camp in Sydney, because of an abscess flare up in his mouth.
“Rob has a really bad abscess that flared up a week before flying out,” Titus Day, Whittaker’s manager explained to Fox Sports Australia.
“He had headaches, tooth pain, it was like he’d been kicked in the side of the head. He couldn’t train, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. It was f****** painful. The whole side of his head was in pain so we had to rush him in for emergency surgery,” Titus Day continued.
After undergoing emergency root canal surgery, the former middleweight champion flew out to Dubai, still numb in the face, not knowing if he was going to be ok to fight.
“Rob had already stopped training a few days prior to the surgery in Sydney. And then flew out with his face still numb. We had no idea if it was going to be alright,” his manager admitted.
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Whittaker requires further surgery putting Perth plans on hold
Despite undergoing the initial surgery, the 33-year-old requires a further surgery in the coming weeks to fully fix the issues.
Following his emphatic win on Saturday night, Whittaker stated that he would like to put his name in the hat to be the backup fighter for the UFC 305 main event between his former foes, Du Plessis and Adesanya.
That, though, may be put on hold for now, with Whittaker set to meet with his medical team to come up with the best plan of action, considering his needed upcoming surgery.
“Rob has still got pain there. Still needs more surgery to be done in the next couple of weeks.
“Right now regarding Perth, it’s just too early to say. Obviously there was a lot of talk on the night about Rob being the backup for that UFC 305 main event. There was also talk about him fighting somebody else too.
“And potentially, he could still do either of those. He’ll have to meet with the team and talk it through,” Titus Day added.
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