Whittaker questions Romero’s ‘magical’ physical condition
Robert Whittaker: “I’m leaving that down to nothing more than magic, honestly. I can’t see you jumping on a special diet filled with kale and good fruits and then performing like him.”
UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has won seven performance bonuses in his last eight fight, including four fight of the nights. His last two fights were wins over Yoel Romero, the most recent a controversial split decision at UFC 225, after a failed weigh-in by the Cuban.
Don’t Call Me Bobby Knuckles spoke recently with GrangeTV for a wide-ranging discussion that included the possibility of a trilogy fight and raised questions about Romero’s physical ability.
Whatever Romero’s rehydration program is, I would like to get on that because he looked huge, said Whittaker, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. He looked massive from the skeleton I saw the day before and him missing [weight] and looking like he was going to die, to him hopping back in that octagon, it was like two different guys. And taking head shots like, I hit him a lot and he was able to just walk through those shots.
Whatever he’s hydrating on, I would like to know so that I can also hydrate on that because it turns you superhuman just about. When I was punching and kicking him, he felt like metal, like a dude made out of concrete. I was ridiculous. I fought him a year ago, and he didn’t feel like concrete.
I’m pretty sure I hit hard. You can ask all my other opponents if I hit hard. I’ve stopped dudes that don’t get stopped and – I don’t know. He’s a top caliber athlete but for him to come back the way he did and for him to feel so differently and perform so differently than he did a year ago – let’s not forget, I have fought him before, I have experienced his shots, I’ve experienced landing shots on him, I’ve fought him before. For him to make those changes physically and athletically in a year, at the age of 41, I’m leaving that down to nothing more than magic, honestly. I can’t see you jumping on a special diet filled with kale and good fruits and then performing like him.
Everything I did was in the game plan and it worked successfully. The only thing we didn’t count on was one, breaking my right hand, and two, him being Robocop. You can’t account for that. He’s a tough dude and he took a lot of shots. I’ve hit guys much less than that and they don’t stay in the fight, and they’re all tough dudes.
Fans and the UFC like finishes and the last two fights between the pair went five rounds. However, each won Fight of the Night. Is a trilogy fight next?
Why would I fight someone again after beating him twice? asked Whittaker. Surely the point has been made. And he didn’t make weight the second time. That’s not to say that if he works his way up and beats the top contenders again that I won’t have to fight him because my whole thing is that I have to fight the biggest dude, the dude who is cleaning out the division and fought his way up to the number one spot. But I’ve now beaten him twice. He’d have to do something special to get a third shot.
