UFC 329: Robert Whittaker post-fight interview

How does it feel, man? Everything that could go right, did go right. I can't express to you how good I feel. There was a lot of nerves going into this. Thank you. There was a lot of nerves going into this. Who hasn't seen the story of middleweight after two losses, moving up to light heavyweight and then sliding into oblivion? I didn't want to be that guy. I believed in myself. I trained extensively for this. Mate, I did half my work with Alex Prats and the team at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Smith & Grange. Half the camp at CKB with Eugene Berman. Between those two heads, it came away with a great game plan to dismantle this guy. Had my two boys and wife in the crowd. They finally saw what daddy does for work. I don't just stay at home and sit down and play games. So, yeah, today was a good day. And what did they say to you afterwards? They got to sit in the crowd and watch you compete. To be able to go back and share it with them after, what was that like? Yeah, I think they're still kind of reeling. I don't think they've absorbed. I feel like this will have more significance in 10 years' time. I'll tell you what they do love. The buffets in every media room. They are going crazy. And you know what? I'm celebrating. So, cookies for everyone. Dig in, boys. Pack your bags. They're out the back right now just jumping away. Take it all, boys. It was a great performance. Obviously, Nikita, they said on the broadcast that he broke his jaw in that moment. So, obviously, it's great to have a win. But you're a very respectful guy. I know you had a lot of respect for Nikita. Obviously, you don't want to leave him broken like that. But I wanted to get your reaction to obviously a great win, but the tougher side of the fight game. Yeah, definitely. He's a tough guy. I was tagging his jaw a lot. There are a lot of moments, a lot of clashes and exchanges where he was coming off the second best. And I felt like I was catching that lead hand and right hand over the top a lot of times, put in some work in the first round, really started putting in the work in the second. And, yeah, the jaw can only take so much. I saw after that last shot that his jaw was gone. And, yeah, just leave it there. I'm a good guy. And last thing I want to ask you about, obviously the fighters were very impressed with what they saw. You're a fan favorite amongst them as well. But Bilal Muhammad, this is a tweet he put out. Quote, I've seen enough. Give me Whitaker versus Uri next. Okay. When he first started saying that, I was like, no, he's not. You know what I mean? But, yeah, you know, we'll see. I feel like the division is a buffet. I wanted someone ranked out of the gate. You know, I think a lot of questions have been answered. I feel like there was a lot of doubters out there. There were a lot of people that had questions, a lot of people who wanted to see what the transition looked like, me going up. So, yeah, I think I silenced those guys and, you know, put my case forward. Do you feel like you supported Team Final Fantasy VIII with this performance tonight? Team Final Fantasy VIII. Final Fantasy VIII is the best Final Fantasy VIII. You know, everyone who says VII is just mainstream, whatever. VIII is where it's at. Dude, it's so good. VIII is so good. Did you feel different in that? Obviously, you've been sparring, you've been training as a light heavyweight, but to go in there and actually compete, did it feel different to be at this weight? Hold on. On VIII, VIII has a card game in it. It does. Like, I fell into that just like Gwen. It's a full card game. Unreal. Sorry, what was the question? Did it feel different fighting as a light heavyweight? Did it actually feel different being in that? You know, honestly, fighting is fighting. It felt very much the same. I trained for months like my opponent had death in his hands. You know, he was a light heavyweight moving up. Understandably, everyone hits harder. So I trained like every touch would put me to sleep. If I had a session or a training where I got hit, it was a fail for me. I wasn't happy. I'd go home upset. So I trained so much to work through that. And then once I was in there, they hit hard, but mate, the middleweights hit hard too. You know what I mean? And the idea is not to get hit. And another thing is like I have size on me. I don't know. I know I'm not tall, and I don't know why people think I'm so skinny. I woke up at 2.30 this morning, you know. I had to cut back on the snacks. I skipped lunch a little bit to come in lighter. Mike said you never want to leave any damage on someone and you broke Nikita's jaw. But I remember when you toured Darren Till's ACL, you actually were on stage. You went, ha, ha, ha, and you were quite happy about it. So is there a part of you that at least you feel like, oh, yeah, I got some damage on the guy? Oh, yeah. By no means am I unhappy I hurt him. That's the aim of the game. He would have done it to me if he could have. You know what I mean? It's just it is what it is. I don't feel sad for him. You know what I mean? He's getting a paycheck. That's how this works. Congrats on the win. Just one quick one for me. You mentioned part of your training camp at City Kickboxing. One of your former opponents, Israel Adesanya, just left that. I know you probably don't want to share too much, but can you just speak on what you think that means for the next chapter of his career and what it means for him leaving City Kickboxing? I've been waiting for people to ask me, honestly. I've got the goss. No, I've got nothing. I don't know what he's doing. Honestly, he's a friend of mine. He'll go wherever he wants. The world is his oyster. Every door is open to him. He's a superstar in his own right, and he's a good guy. I'm sure he's just trying to find the love for the journey and for the game like I was in this fight. It looks like he's having fun still. You follow his speeds and whatnot. He's still doing cool stuff. Rob, following up on that, how much were you able to train with Izzy for this camp with the CKB, and do you plan on going back to CKB regardless? Obviously, Smeaton Grange is the home gym, but it was successful night out. Are we going to redo the recipe? I definitely believe between Alex and Eugene, their relationship is really strong. Our relationship with them is really strong. I felt like I joined their team. I'm one of them now. I live in Sydney. I live in Australia. That's where my team is. That's where a lot of boys that I want to help stay and reside. That's where my family is. I'll definitely go back over to Sydney kickboxing because they helped me extensively for this fight. There's a lot of bodies over there that I want to help as well. I was born there. I have a lot of family there. There's something powerful about being back in the motherland a bit. You're probably embracing your Maori roots a little more now, getting bigger and stronger up here. Last one from me, though. I find it interesting you said you were doing drills where it was almost like it was failure if you got touched. Because from an outside perspective, of course, tonight, you looked really – not that your boxing isn't great or you haven't been confident, but you looked really confident. You looked like you were really sitting down on your punches and just really feeling yourself out there, man. How was the confidence in sitting down on the punches? Is it an obvious thing with more weight, more weight to put down on the punches? How does it translate for you? Yeah. I wrote it on paper, you know, like mass times speed, right? In my head, it makes perfect sense. I was like, I can work with this. But I trained meticulously for months on, you know, just being respectful of the power, being respectful of the distance and the range that he had, being respectful of the move up to the division. And I drilled it so much that it became second nature. So in that second round, once I had done the work, and Alex reminded me with some tips in the corner about what I needed to do, I felt myself, I blended everything together, and I got to work. You know, I'm a championship level fighter, and I think I showed everyone that. Thank you. Hey, Rob, congrats on the win. Any part of you tonight, after today's victory or tonight's victory, you know, think to yourself, I wish maybe I would have moved up a little bit sooner? Potentially, potentially. Maybe a fight sooner, but I don't live in the past, so I just keep moving forward. You know, it's better late than never. It's fine. I'm in a really good place now. I had a really good experience with the fight week, and the fight itself, obviously. I'm going to have an excellent experience for this next week, taking the kids. No, I'm not looking forward to Disneyland. That's a world of whichever one that is. Yeah, that's not going to be fun. But yeah, it's only up from here, mate. Is it safe to say this week, I mean, you just seemed like you were in a great mood, and I know obviously it was not having to cut as much weight. I know you had your family here, but did you feel different going in tonight? Because you just seemed like the whole week was like, you really enjoyed this. It really came across that way. Yeah, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed the whole week. You know, normally I'm logging to go home, see my wife, see my kids, and I didn't have that split attention. I was here. You know, I was here to fight, and I was locked in. The nerves were the same, prepping in the back room. From when my team picked me up at 2.30, I don't think we spoke until after the fight. Everyone's really nervous, and we're doing our things, but we've been here time and time again, mate. And just last one for me, you didn't want to talk about this before the fight, understandable, you had to take care of the task at hand, but now that you got this win and being a former champion, how many fights do you think you could be away from getting a title shot just because you are a former champion? I don't know. You know, the division is a buffet right now. Winning opens doors, and I have won, and the doors are open. So I'm going to go enjoy myself, and then I'm going to get back in training because I don't want to start at zero again. I started this camp at zero, and that wasn't fun. So I want to keep the ball rolling. I didn't take too much damage. Maybe by the end of the year, we'll get back in, keep moving up the ladder, keep progressing. Rob over here. Congrats on the victory back here. You know, somebody that's been by your side your whole career is your wife, Sophia. What's the biggest lesson she's taught you through this journey? Maybe that I'm not perfect. You know, I make mistakes, and I have to adjust, and I have to reinvent myself constantly. And she's the one that kind of checks me, you know, especially when it comes to training. You don't understand. Even after post-Wayne, she's there going, you probably shouldn't eat that. You probably shouldn't go in and out. That's not going to help your performance. I'm like, oh, but I feel like I could. Yeah, she just keeps me human. You know what I mean? She keeps me grounded. She's everything. And you've obviously earned that love from your family and the fans. What does it mean that the American crowd went crazy for you? You don't talk much trash. You've been yourself. How much does that mean that you get love from around the world? I'm proud of it, you know, and I'm trying to lead an example for my two boys out here and for my kids that I'm raising. You know, I'm trying to be an example for other kids and other men. I let my work do the talking. You know, there's no need to do that stuff. Let alone, like, smack talk's good, right? It's just when it gets a bit too far, when it gets personal. Everyone loves a little smack talk. You haven't seen me play Super Smash Brothers, brother. Like, I'll make you cry, okay? But not personally, okay? But, yeah, I think there's a place for it. But I just want to be a good man, and I want to raise good men. Congrats on the win, champ. Rob, just right here in the middle. Prior to this fight and prior to moving up, you discussed the move up to light heavyweight as something you were going to do and do it right, really put on that size, close the door at middleweight, move up to light heavy. You said if tonight went well and you felt good, you might actually go a bit longer than you were initially expecting. Do you think you've got more in you than you were expecting after a performance like that? Yeah, but that's not making any decisions while I'm happy, right? Danger. Yeah, I definitely… You've got to understand I'm only human. I've got to fight my own doubts that play in my head. I've got to silence those and silence the voices of everybody else that pipe in on the side. I definitely have a few more in me, but the main thing is I'm enjoying myself. I'm enjoying myself now. I enjoyed this week. I enjoyed competition. I enjoyed winning. Talking about that, the first thing you said after you got the mic in the cage kind of gave a message to the haters, obviously said kind of in jest and being funny. However, were you feeling maybe underestimated by people? Well, I was underestimated by the people that read it, but I don't know if we can consider them people, right? Don't get me wrong. They're my people. I love it there. I play there all the time. But yeah, I'm sick of everyone saying I'm a small middleweight. I'm sick of it. Every photo I've put up, worried about Rob moving up. It's cool. Like I said, feast your eyes on that. You said this week that you'd like to wrap up the career in Australia, kind of where it started. I don't know if you specifically said Sydney or just Australia in general. Australia is a place that the UFC go often, and you're not a stranger to fighting there. Although you want to wrap up the career in Australia, is the next fight in Australia going to be the last one? No, I don't know. No, probably not. I've got a couple of fights left in my contract. Who knows? I don't know. Like I said, let's not make decisions right now. My main thing is the enjoyment of the game. Something sparked this last camp, this last prep. 35, not too old. Got a couple more in me. And two final last ones from me. Although you looked fantastic out there and you don't have a mark on you, during the fight it seemed like you were reaching down and playing with your feet, like grabbing at them. Is that something that you do out of just like a tick or did something happen to your feet? I don't know if it's a tick, but once I start sweating, I rub my right foot on my calf to get the sweat on my foot and it gives me friction to move forward. And it's not that there isn't friction already. I think it's become a tick. Not a tick, a habit that I created back home. Like through the years, we've trained on some dodgy mats or some dodgy tarps. And yeah, that used to be the only way to get any sort of grip before you attack or before you're doing anything or just getting moving. And I think it's become like a bit of a habit or a tick or whatever, but I knew it as I was doing it. And I was like, man, people are going to be on this again. Finally for me, a little bit more lighthearted. You have like an iconic walkout song. I think you've only ever changed it twice in your UFC career. And obviously that pumps you up. Out the back when you were shadowboxing, they showed you with headphones on. What type of stuff do you listen to during the shadowboxing? It depends what I'm vibing right now. Right now I'm vibing a lot of island music coming back from New Zealand, obviously got a lot of Maori music playing. It's called the island mix. I was just vibing for a bit, dude. Congratulations on the win. What's your Gwent deck? I haven't played that in years, dude. I can't, I can't, I can't. Yeah, I can't tell you top of my head. You've said buffet a lot tonight. Is that just because of the move to the light heavyweight or have you been experiencing the Vegas buffet since you've been here? I haven't. You know, I haven't been to a Vegas buffet since I was a welterweight. For good reason. You only go once, okay? Like, yeah, I used to be able to eat myself silly back then, but not anymore. I'm a man of class now. Hey, Rob, back here. So who's your go-to in Smash Brothers? The big Dorf. Big Dorf. Nobody, like, it is just bad when I send you, when Dorf sends you. He's so slow, bro. It's all about experience, you know what I mean? And then finally, did you play Final Fantasy XV and what did you think of that one? Is that the one with lightning? Yeah. Yeah, nah. Nah, I don't. I find it very hard to get into games where the protagonist is a female because I'm not a female. I can't role play myself as a woman. Sorry. Like, I find it hard to get a… Oh, with that attitude? Yeah. Never will with that attitude. Nah. Yeah, I just can't get immersed that way otherwise. Sorry. You know what was another good one? Final Fantasy XII. That's a banger. Like, really, really good. I never went back to that, but yeah, that was a good one. Underrated. Yeah, super underrated. So good. Is that it? Yeah, peace. Thanks, boys.