Robert Whittaker philosophical after UFC 243 defeat: 'I was doing well until I wasn't'
MELBOURNE, Australia – Being asked to assess the reasons for a loss mere minutes after the bout in question is always a tough ask of a fighter, and arguably even more so after a world title fight.
But former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker attempted to do so with honesty and good humor during the UFC 243 post-fight news conference.
Whittaker (20-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) was stunned in the first round, then finished in the second by Israel Adesanya and lost his UFC middleweight title on home soil at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. But despite clearly suffering from the sting of defeat, the Australian grinned and gave an obvious answer to an obvious question when asked how, on reflection, he could have done things differently on fight night.
“Not get hit,” he said. “I went out there and I displayed my heart and I showed my skill sets and I just came off second best tonight. That’s not to say it’ll happen two times in a row.
“When you’re fighting at this high caliber, at this level, every fight is on the line. It’s a tightrope. A lot of the fans don’t realize that we’re walking a tightrope out there and everybody can beat anybody. Tonight wasn’t my night, but tomorrow might be.”
Whittaker’s sense of frustration came from the belief that he was implementing his game plan well. He started the fight strongly and was arguably all set to take the opening round on the scorecards before being dropped with a perfectly-timed counter from Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC).
But prior to that last-gasp, first-round knockdown, Whittaker had controlled the range well, staying on the outside, then blitzing in and connecting with shots before backing away again. It was a tactic he thought was bringing him success until Adesanya started to connect with his counters.
“You can’t hit him on the outside,” he said. “He’s very long and he’s very tall. I think any guy trying to get in on a tall fighter has to close that gap, and I was having a lot of success doing so. In that first round, I was hitting him, I was hurting him. I was doing work, I was doing damage. I felt really good out there. I felt like I was controlling the fight. Then I just got caught.”
And while he didn’t get to use his wrestling skills in the fight, Whittaker said those skills are very much there. His success through much of the opening round suggested to him that he had a winning strategy. Then, as he admitted with a wry smile, things went wrong.
“I work my wrestling religiously,” he explained. “I think there’s a misconception if I have good defensive wrestling I don’t have good offensive wrestling. So it’s in my arsenal – I just felt like I didn’t need it. I was having success with my strikes, and I was doing well, until I wasn’t. That’s just how it happens.”