Robert Whittaker, finally broke his silence on the whole matter regarding Khamzat Chimaev and his last moment pull out from UFC Fight Night in Saudi. Dana White was excited about this match and even thought it was going to become the “Greatest Fight Night card ever.”  Unfortunately, the middleweight champion’s opponent pulled out at the last moment because he was in the hospital battling an injury and 180-pounder Ikram Alisekov replaced him.

Now Whittaker opened up about the last-moment change and gave his thoughts on the matter. Let’s see if he is ready to fight his new opponent.

Robert Whittaker opens up about his opponent’s replacement

Mike Owens from talkSPORT MMA spoke to The Reaper about ‘Borz’ being out of the fight. Once Whittaker got the news he was upset as he spent months training and planning a specific strategy for Chimaev. When the host asked his reaction to learn the news, the middleweight champ said, “Yeah more or less, the coach came up to me and said mate Chimaev is out. It was crazy um we’re going to work things out with UFC to organize a new opponent. Just hold tight more or less. Because they understood what I wanted and that I wanted to fight. I’ve been putting in so much work I’m fit I’m lean I am already here in Dubai. I’m fighting someone right!”

So clearly the man who won against Paulo Costa was ready for another fight and another win. However, this unforeseen incident happened in the middle. Yet he is ready to fight and secure his position in UFC. He also said that he realized the level of responsibility he had since this was the main card so he flew out to Dubai.

The Aussie is ready to fight this card despite Chimaev’s absence and he did not know who Aliskerov was before this fight. Whittaker is looking forward to fighting the Dagestani.

Robert Whittaker was interested in fighting Alisekov

Alisekov is a Dagestani MMA fighter and like the other fighters from his hometown in Russia, he has impeccable wrestling skills. These skills have had a good effect on his MMA career and he won all of his fights except one.

The only loss he has had is interestingly from Khamzat Chimaev who was supposed to be Whittaker’s opponent in this fight. Aliskerov has had three fights in UFC and already fell into this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because of the incident. Ahead of this Saudi bout, ‘The Reaper’ admitted he did not know the fighter before this fight was decided. “Ikram brings a different threat to the table. I hadn’t heard of him or seen him fight before that. Mate sometimes you’ve just got to take things as they come and yeah, I have full faith in my skill-set,” he said.

Even though now it’s a new challenge with a new and skilled fighter, Whittaker seems to be confident about his abilities. However, with Chimaev out of the fight, Whittaker is in an unfavorable position. Since Aliskerov is only three fights in, ‘The Reaper’ will not rise in any rankings and a loss to him will be a huge blow. Let’s see what happens!