Robert Whittaker is setting the record straight when it comes to claims that he was offered a fight with rising star Khamzat Chimaev.
On a recent edition of The MMA Hour, Chimaev told Ariel Helwani that one of the fights he was offered following his UFC 279 victory over Kevin Holland was with the former middleweight champion. On his podcast MMArcade, Whittaker gave his side of things.
“Someone said that Chimaev said that they offered me a fight and that I turned it down,” Whittaker said. “I was never offered a fight with Chimaev, and that’s that.
“I haven’t been offered any fight. I’ve been just waiting.”
The UFC had announced that Whittaker was slated to face Paulo Costa at UFC 284 in February, but the bout never came to fruition. With Saturday’s UFC 287 main event for the middleweight title between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya — who holds two victories over Whittaker — the result could very well determine what is next for “The Reaper.”
“I’ve been talking with the UFC, and the communication has been, ‘Let’s wait and see what happens with this title shot,’” Whittaker explained. “I have not received any sort of written contract that says, ‘Do you want to fight Chimaev in x, y, or z?’ That’s not something that has been presented to me. So just clarifying that.”
