Robert Whittaker was no match for Khamzat Chimaev in Saturday’s UFC 308 co-main event, but he is still one of the toughest human beings on Earth.
Less than 24 hours after suffering a hellacious injury to his mouth that many thought was a collapsed jaw, the former UFC middleweight champion gave a remarkably poised and entertaining interview with Red Corner MMA where he provided an update.
The injury was to Whittaker’s teeth, not his jaw.
Whittaker added this post to his Instagram account as well.
“Thank you everyone for all the love and support. It’s a tough gig sometimes but that’s the business. Big congratulations to Khamzat, he was the better man tonight and that’s all there is to it. I felt great, everything was on point and I was ready. My jaw is good, but my teeth were moved in. It’s a good excuse to fix them properly now haha. I’m disappointed, but I come back better from every setback and every challenge so this is no different. I want to thank my team and everyone who supported me to get here. Time to go spend time with the family for a bit. Be back soon.”
In case you missed it, here’s the finished from Chimaev that caused the injury.
Whittaker’s willingness and ability to grant this interview were pretty amazing. Whittaker is already sure he’s not hanging up the gloves. He will continue, but one has to wonder what his ceiling is now.
He’ll be 34 in December, but imagining a world where he can defeat Chimaev is tough. Whittaker has already lost to current champion Dricus Du Plessis, so it’s tough to imagine his path back to a title a shot. He is trending toward being the fraud-check guy for fighters who want to enter the Top 5 in the middleweight division.
We’ll see how long he’s out of action and what fight he gets upon his return. Here is a look at all of the results from UFC 308
- (c) Ilia Topuria def. Max Holloway – UFC Featherweight Championship via TKO in the third round
- Khamzat Chimaev def. Robert Whittaker via submission in the first round (face crank)
- Magomed Ankalaev def. Aleksandar Rakic via unanimous decision 29-28×3
- Lerone Murphy def. Dan Ige via unanimous decision 29-28×3
- Shara Magomedov def. Armen Petrosyan via KO in the second round
- Ibo Aslan def. Raffael Cerqueira via KO in the first round
- Geoff Neal def. Rafael dos Anjos via TKO in the first round
- Mateusz Rebecki def. Myktybek Orolbai via split decision 29-28×2, 28-29.
- Abus Magomedov def. Brunno Ferreira via submission in the third round (arm-triangle choke)
- Kennedy Nzechukwu def. Chris Barnett TKO in the first round
- Farid Basharat def. Victor Hugo via. unanimous decision, 30-27, 29-28×2
- Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Carlos Leal via unanimous decision 30-27, 29-28×2
- Ismail Naurdiev def. Bruno Silva 30-27×3
