Robert Whittaker - A True Legend

It takes a lot of self-discipline and expertise for you to be the middleweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. For young Robert Whittaker and his brother, self-defense was the sport through which their father sought to instill self-discipline in them.

After 8 years of training, Robert earned his black belt and a choice; either he could continue with karate or walk away from it. His brother walked away, but Robert chose to stay, this time training in Hapkido. Circumstances, however, forced him to start training in MMA, a sport he got hooked on because he enjoyed it tremendously. This decision proved wise, as it would see his name adorning the hall of fame of the UFC.

Career

Whittaker's coach, Henry Perez, owned the gym where he first started training for MMA. In 2008, the athlete started competing as a professional of the sport. His debut on Australia's Xtreme Fighting Championships was in Mid-March of 2009. He won his first fight and all the subsequent ones until two years later when he lost to Hoon Kim by submitting.

On 15th of December 2012, Whittaker made his debut at The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes after being encouraged and signed on by his coach. He fought Brad Scott in his debut and would beat him to win alongside Norman Parke. The latter was the lightweight champion.

Some of his earlier fights in UFC include against Colton Smith, Court McGee and Brian Melancon in 2013 and Mike Rhodes and Stephen Thompson in 2014.

2017 would see Whittaker move from lightweight to middleweight class as on the 8th of July, he would fight against Yoel Romero for the interim middleweight crown. He lifted a crown after he was given the title of the middleweight champion through a unanimous vote.

Training and Fight

Above all, Whittaker enjoys and respects the MMA sport. He says that as he goes in to fight his opponent, he has no ill feelings of them. He does it simply because he loves and enjoys the sport and being an athlete is what matters.

Whittaker's discipline has caught media attention as he posts some of his routines on social media, particularly Instagram. Earlier this year, he was still recovering from hernia and through a photo he posted; he thanked his team for helping him get back on track.

His workouts include strength training and conditioning and cardio. Squats, aerobic warm-up, lifting dumbbells, bench-pressing and sumo walks are some of the routines that he does to keep fit. Furthermore, Whittaker uses a mouthguard to protect his teeth when working out. Since this sportsman is active within MMA, which is a very high-intensive contact sport, he requires this product. A mouthguard helps everyone, not only athletes, who expose their teeth to massive stress to protect from the most serious damage. If you can relate to this, either in your day-job or in sports, you should consider visiting a dental office such as Pure Dentistry’s to consult on your opportunities on having a mouthguard made.

As the UFC middleweight champion, Whittaker has a fighting streak of 9 matches, 10 wins he garnered through a knockout and 1 finishes in the first round. His striking accuracy is 41% according to the UFC official website while his grappling accuracy is 57%. He has attempted 7 takedowns and been successful at 4 of them.

A happily-married man, Robert Whittaker has proven that you can have a vibrant and private personal life and still bring out the beast and takedown champions to be the champion. The match against Israel Asedanya in defense of his interim middleweight championship should be interesting.