In addition to a short-notice opponent, Robert Whittaker faced additional adversity heading into his match against Ikram Aliskerov in the main event of UFC on ABC 6.
Whittaker’s manager, Titus Day, told Fox Sports Australia that the former middleweight champion underwent emergency root canal surgery just 24 hours before the fight.
“Rob had a bad abscess that got worse the week before he flew out,” Day said. “He had headaches, toothaches, it felt like he’d been kicked in the side of his head. He couldn’t practice, he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. He was in so much pain.”
“The whole side of my head was hurting so I had to be rushed into hospital for emergency surgery.”
“The Grim Reaper” showed no signs of slowing down as he recorded his second consecutive victory, defeating Aliskerov by knockout in the first round at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
“Rob had already stopped training a few days before his surgery in Sydney,” Day said, “and then he flew off with his face still numb and we had no idea if he was going to be OK. We were all just praying that the swelling would go down and everything would be OK, and thankfully that’s what happened. But Rob is still in pain down there and he’ll need further surgery in the coming weeks.”
Following the win, Whittaker expressed interest in serving as a backup fighter for the title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. The availability of that fight, and whether Whittaker will compete in another bout on August 17, remains unclear at this time.
“As far as Perth goes, it’s too early to say right now,” Day said. “Obviously there was a lot of talk that night about Rob being the backup in the main event at UFC 305. There was also talk about him fighting somebody else. And it’s still possible that he could do either of those things. He’ll need to meet with his team and discuss it. Rob has committed time off to his family, so until he speaks with his family, his coaches and his doctors, we won’t know.”
