Robert Whittaker who is 28 years old New Zealand born Australian professional mixed martial artist. He is signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion.
Robert Whittaker was unbeaten in eight UFC fights in a middleweight category and became the champion when UFC legend Georges St Pierre quashed the middleweight belt in 2017. Robert got an injury on his way to the first defense title, though he soon defeated his opponent Yoel Romero for the second time and brought himself the belt of triumph.
The Ultimate Fighter
It was almost a decade ago when Whittaker began competing in MMA as a professional sportsman. He signed with Australia’s Xtreme Fighting Championship and made his debut in March of 2009. He won his first fight via TKO in the first round. He continued his career with Cage Fighting Championship going 6-0 from 2009 to 2011 and had his ultimate wins as well.
It was in 2012 when his coach Henry Perez put him on the first series of The Ultimate Fighter. There was a fight between the teams of the eight men from Australia and eight men from the UK. there he was selected as the cast member. In his first show, Whittaker fought against Luke Newman. He landed a punch flush on the chin of Newman after 19 seconds, knocking him unconscious for several minutes. This was the semifinal showing move. Via the knockout, he also won $25.000 for the title of the “Knockout of the Season”.
Wrestling Tournaments
Robert Whittaker began competing in amateur freestyle wrestling tournaments in 2015. It was a huge plot twist as he unexpectedly turned to be competing in the Australia Cup held in Canberra. It was a huge success to him as well, as he won all of his three bouts. It was later in 2015 when he got the possibility to represent Australia in Olympic or Commonwealth wrestling competitions. It appears like he was in the right place at the right moment.
He turned to the wrestling mat in 2017 and claimed himself the Australian National Wrestling Championship gold medal in the 97 kg division. It was after winning of the national championship Whittaker entered Australia’s 2018 Commonwealth Games 97 kg qualifying tournament in November 2017. He would once again claim first place in his division and in doing so qualified to represent Australia in the wrestling at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, the city in which he made his UFC debut.
Biography
MMA Fighter is the true love of social media. While usually, you find the names of the famous people on the platforms Robert Whittaker is not one of them on the list. He is actually a very much beloved person on social media and he seems to be very happy about that fact. He is also considered to be one of the builders of the culture. While he himself stays very modest regarding reference, he describes it as staying loyal to his values and morals.
As for the role model and someone he has always aspired to be like Whittaker names his father. He says that his father is his biggest supporter and a role model for life. He is the one who kept Robert very straight and narrow and encouraged him not to fool and embarrass himself. Robert names his father the man who rose him and his brother and he hopes to be the same kind of father for his own kids.
He was big on honor and integrity and it was pinpoint the individual moment when it was displayed, it is something that he has ingrained in himself naturally and something he grew up with. “We were very much ‘what happens on the field stays on the field,’ ‘be humble in defeat, be humble in victory.’ I guess the best way to say it is that my old man is just very down to earth; he’s a normal guy like everybody else, and I’m just trying to make him proud.” says the MMA fighter.
Besides being the MMA fighter, Whittaker does a lot of community for kids. He has his own program a Gracie Aboriginal Pathways educational program. Within the program, they try to hand out physical education and physical health certificates to remote communities. “We fly in Indigenous guys or girls from the remote communities, bring them in, educate them, get them to get their Certificate 3 and 4 and then they go back with that skillset, open gyms, stay down here and work, or whatever. And it’s been great. We’ve had a lot of success, we’re running another block right now and yea it’s been great to be able to make a difference, to be able to give people skillsets they wouldn’t have had otherwise, give people chances to be able to work in those industries.”