Robert Whittaker is unsurprisingly humble in the aftermath of a surprising upset loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290.
Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) fell short as a heavy betting favorite Saturday when he suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in a middleweight title eliminator at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
A former UFC champ, Whittaker had a solid opening to the fight, but Du Plessis took over as the first round wore on, then secured the stoppage in the second frame to set up a title grudge match with Israel Adesanya. It was Whittaker’s first defeat at 185 pounds to anyone other than Adesanya, which leaves him in something of a state of limbo.
Undeterred in his first statement since the fight, Whittaker acknowledged not living up to his typical standard of performance.
“Congratulations to Dricus – he showed up to fight, and I didn’t,” Whittaker said Tuesday in an Instagram post. “But that’s the nature of the beast. You can’t have a day off. It is what it is. But I will say that I do believe that challenges and hardships and obstacles that get presented to you that you overcome, make you stronger. Build character, make you a better man and by fact a better athlete, and I will come back stronger from this.
Whittaker, 32, hasn’t lost consecutive fights in nearly 10 years, and he’s not keen to sit on the result for long. He hopes to return to action this year as he tries to put this result behind him and rebuild some momentum.
“I’ll come back hopefully by the end of the year,” Whittaker said. “I want to get in the octagon by the end of the year, to get in there and close the year on a win and bring back ‘The Reaper’ you guys know.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
