The stakes are high in Perth, Australia with UFC 221 hosting an important interim title fight between Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold. In the two bouts leading up to the title fight, two heavyweight fights could see the rise of future title contenders. And throughout the rest of the card there is an abundance of local talent, each of them looking to prove themselves on their home patch.
UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker should be in the last stages of preparation for his first title defense as the undisputed champion against Luke Rockhold. Injury and illness conspired to steal that opportunity from him, with the UFC 221 main event now being between Rockhold and Yoel Romero for the interim middleweight belt. Whittaker has spoken to clear up any misunderstanding regarding exactly why he was unable to compete in his adopted homeland of Australia. Speaking at the UFC 221 open work outs in Sydney, Whittaker explained that there were a number of issues keeping him from fighting as originally planned. “Everyone knows I like to fight injured. Half the fights I’ve taken I’ve always been injured. Just before I got ill, I pulled my hamstring. We could work around it and we were doing things to compensate for it, we were working around it, but then I got a really bad infection and the infection and the antibiotics just took it out of me. I was really struggling to recover and then right at the end of the infection, I got the chickenpox. That’s why I’ve got the scars all over my face. It was an absolute mess. If anyone’s had it, it’s just horrible .” Once Whittaker withdrew from the proposed match up with Rockhold, the UFC acted quickly to save the main event with Romero stepping in and the fight being made for the interim middleweight title. In a move which is becoming increasingly rare these days, we now have the number 1 and number 2 contenders fighting with the winner expected to fight the champion later this year. “When they offered this outcome to me I was delighted,” Whittaker added. “The number one and number two contenders get to bash each other, and I was just like, ‘Yes. Good. Please.’ As a fan of this sport, I would’ve paid to watch this fight. This is a fight I think people want to see, and I’m more than happy to bash Yoel again or I’m more than happy to give it to Rockhold as well. We’ll see.” With reports confirming that Whittaker is back in the gym and training for his return, things are looking good for a reunification bout with either Rockhold or Romero later this year. “I’m just focused on recovering. I’m gonna let Yoel and Rockhold punch it out a bit, but things are good and I’m looking for a big return mid-year. So let’s see what happens.”
Just two-weeks out from UFC 221 we are now hearing that current middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has returned to training. This brings into question when a possible return and title decider could happen.
I don’t think I have been less interested in a UFC card than I have been for this weekends UFC show in Charlotte headlined by Jacare Souza and Derek Brunson. That is no disrespect to any fighter on the card, and admittedly a show you are not that bothered about sometimes ends up giving you great fight after great fight, but sometimes I feel we could do without certain events. Take the UFC PPV offerings, for example, they should be stacked from top to bottom, ranked fighters fighting each other, titles on the line etc, often that is not the case. Fighters who would normally end up on PPV often find their way onto the Fox cards, weakening the PPV cards. Of course it’s a fine balance, obviously, you have to showcase certain talent on free TV, to build the brand and all that, but I just feel there are too many shows and not enough quality or depth for the number of shows we have currently. You could perhaps even argue that there are too many PPV cards, but the UFC is highly unlikely to cut the current amount of PPV cards and lose the revenue they generate. Sometimes I also feel the fans could do with a break also, especially when you get shows week in week out, you could argue it waters down the product in terms of quality. Personally, I would like to see one PPV card each month, and say one other Fox show in that month, so we have a week’s break every other week. I would like to add a limit on the number of fights on the cards also, say no more than 4/5 fights on the main card, five fights on the prelims and just two on Fight Pass, again I feel it would increase the quality of the cards the UFC gives us. As ever I would welcome feedback on this, what’s your views, I try to watch everything, so is it simply a case of viewers picking and choosing what they watch, or the UFC upping the quality and cutting back a little.
At UFC 221 in Perth, Australia, Luke Rockhold will Fight Yoel Romero for the interim middleweight championship belt. Rockhold was supposed to fighting current UFC champion Robert Whittaker but he had to with withdraw from the fight due to injury. With Rockhold’s father being a professional basketball player, his mother an avid tennis player and his brother being a pro surfer it seems as if the Californian was destined to succeed. When Rockhold was six he started judo lessons but gave it up when he turned ten. Seventh grade was when Rockhold began wrestling and he stuck with it through high school and he was also taking jiu-jitsu classes. Rockhold started wrestling for a local college but he felt the sport wasn’t right for him and instead took jiu-jitsu on full-time. After competing in and winning a few tournaments a friend invited him to AKA to train MMA in 2006, the speed Rockhold learnt new things and his kicking display caught the eye of coach Javier Mendez who said early on that the Californian would be a future champion. A win and a loss at MotM was enough for Rockhold to get signed for Strikeforce who at the time was a fairly new organisation looking for up and coming talent and they had struck gold with the Brazillian jiu-jistu black belt. Rockhold showed his k.o power and slick submission as he and went on 9 fight win streak beating fighters like Keith Jardine, Ronaldo Souza and Tim Kennedy. Winning and defending the Strikeforce belt was not enough to keep Rockhold content as the UFC came calling. Rockhold has his first fight in the UFC against Vitor Belfort. As much as Rockhold was expected to carry on his win streak into the UFC it did not stop Belfort from kicking his head off. Losing his first fight in the UFC was far from ideal, but even further away from it being the end of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Costas Philliou was next, Rockhold caught him with a body kick that knocked the wind out of Costas’ sailes and he was unable to continue, a very nice TKO victory for AKA fighter. Winning his next three fights over Tim Boetsch, Micheal Bisping and Lyoto Machida were enough for Rockhold to earn his title shot against Chris Weidman. The All American Weidman was 13-0 and was the favourite to win having beaten Anderson Silva who is thought of as one of the greatest mixed martial artists ever to walk the planet twice. It was a very close fight, Weidman threw a wheel kick which failed and Rockhold got hold of Weidman‘s back and never let go and was the first man ever to take Weidman down before winning in the fourth round via TKO. Rockhold had done it, he’d become champion. Post fight with Joe Rogan an emotional Rockhold said: ” This is indescribable, are you kidding me, I cant even believe this is real right now. I knew if I got him on the ground I’m operating on a different level.” UFC 199 the rematch between Rockhold and Weidman was expected to happen, but two weeks out Weidman was forced out due to an injury. Michael Bisping who was running a three-fight win streak post the loss to Rockhold got the call. So the rematch between Rockhold and Bisping was on. Having beaten Bisping with relative ease in the first fight Rockhold was sleeping on the brit. And if there’s one lesson you should learn is you can never count Michael Bisping out. Bisping caught Rockhold with a hook that knocked him to the floor, scrambling back to his feet Bisping caught him again which dropped the Californian for a second time before landing the punches that knocked Rockhold out cold. Post-fight a sad Rockhold said: ” Congrats to Michael, he caught me, I just didn’t see it happening. I took him for granted. He’s a tough guy his a warrior and I’ve got to give him credit”. Rockhold followed this up with a victory over former World Series Of Fighting world champion David Branch, Rockhold was the superior fighter and made it look like Branch was not in the same league as him. This performance has given Rockhold his chance of becoming a UFC champion again. And if he does, I can see him being the next long-term champion in the UFC‘s middleweight division. Ryan Cambridge
Freshly installed as the undisputed UFC middleweight champion following Georges St-Pierre vacating the title he won from Michael Bisping, Robert Whittaker was booked to defend his title against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221. It appeared that the Middleweight division had returned to business as usual. Sadly not. Shortly after, Whittaker was pulled from the card due to what was described at the time as ‘multiple injuries’. The headlining fight was saved with Yoel Romero stepping in to face Rockhold for yet another interim title. From that point on, there had been no clarification regarding the extent or nature of the injuries to Whittaker. Following UFC 220 this past weekend, UFC president Dana White spoke with TSN and confirmed that Whittaker had been hospitalised with a nasty stomach infection which hadn’t been treated properly. White had the following to say; “He had staph infection in his stomach. From what I understand it wasn’t treated properly and started to eat away at parts of his organs. He’s in serious condition, so it’s going to be a minute before he’s back, I think. Hopefully it turns around quick, but that stuff is life threatening if not treated the right way.” Whittaker is riding an 8 fight winning streak and was due to face Rockhold in what would have been his first fight since claiming the interim middleweight title against Romero in July 2017. Whittaker’s misfortune has ultimately presented Romero with another shot at securing the interim gold on 10th February in Perth, Australia. Fans are left hoping Whittaker makes a swift recovery so that a unification fight can be scheduled with the winner of Rockhold vs Romero. Unfortunately with no timetable in place for Whittaker’s return, the UFC middleweight division once again finds itself in a state of uncertainty.
The UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has withdrawn from a scheduled title defence against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 next month due to an undisclosed injury. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto broke the news in the early hours of this morning. In what will be a blow to both Whittaker and the UFC, Whittaker was headlining in his adopted country of Australia in his first title defence since being moved up from interim to full champ. His opponent Luke Rockhold (16-3) will now face Yoel Romero (12-2) for an interim 185-pound championship. UFC officials told ESPN that Whittaker will face the winner in a unification bout. “I’m beyond disappointed that I’m unable to defend the title in my home country of Australia,” Whittaker stated to ESPN. “I hope the fans enjoy what should be a great night of fights at UFC 221, and I look forward to a recovery as soon as possible that will have me back in the Octagon to face the winner of the main event.” This could prove to a problem for the UFC ticket sales for this event as most fans would have been going to see the first ever Australian based UFC champion. According to ESPN fans will be able to receive a full ticket refund.
UFC 221 takes place in Perth, Australia on Feb 10th next year, headlined by Robert Whittaker defending his middleweight belt against Luke Rockhold. Added to the card is the ever popular heavyweight Mark Hunt who is taking on Curtis Blaydes. Hunt (13-11-1) ranked number 5 in the UFC heavyweight rankings had been pulled from his last fight, which was to take place in Sydney last month, after concerns were raised by the UFC about his health after he apparantly revealed in an interview of forgetting things sometimes, a possible sign of CTE. However it would seem he has satisfied the UFC medical staff and top brass that he is good to return. Blaydes (9-1), currently ranked 9th, is on a 4 fight win streak. His last fight ended somewhat controversially against Alexey Oleinik. He recorded a TKO after the fight was momentarily stopped when it looked like Blaydes landed an illegal kick on his downed opponent. Though Oleinik could not continue, it was ruled that Blaydes’s kick was not the deciding factor and he was given a win rather than a disqualification loss.
The undisputed UFC middleweight championship will be on the line in Australia on Feb. 10 (Feb. 11 local time), when Robert Whittaker defends his crown for the first time against former titleholder Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 221. St-Pierre released this statement, “My fight at UFC 217 was one of the greatest nights of my life but I now need to take some time to focus on my health. Out of respect to the athletes and the sport, I don’t want to hold up the division. I will be giving up my belt and once I’m healthy I look forward to working with the UFC to determine what’s next in my career.” St-Pierre also intimated he would make a return to his natural fighting weight of welterweight. After this statement the UFC elevated the interim title holder Whittaker to undisputed middleweight champion. He will challenge Rockhold, a previous holder of this belt in the main even in Perth.