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Robert Whittaker was supposed to take on Marvin Vettori at UFC 275 in a fun matchup at middleweight. Unfortunately, the Australian was forced to pull out of the fight due to injury.
Marvin Vettori was upset and was looking forward to facing a former UFC champion. Robert Whittaker explained why he opted not to go through with the fight at UFC 275.
“In the MMA community, I think it’s that mentality that is still lingering in places,” UFC middleweight Whittaker told Submission Radio. “Because I think we’re finding that where fighting originated from to where it is today, is a big gap. I feel like some people haven’t caught up. It isn’t about ‘I’ll fight anywhere, anytime’ sort of thing anymore. Because the dudes that do that aren’t in the UFC, they’re in your local scene, fighting at the pub. Like, if that’s the type of fight you want, that’s where you got to go to see it. We’re professionals at the highest level, and everything I try to do needs to be professional and at a hundred percent.”
Robert Whittaker made it clear that the pullout was a show of respect to Marvin Vettori and came from a good place. He only wanted to fight at UFC 275 if he was in the best shape.
“And it’s not like Vettori’s a chump,” Whittaker said. “I would think it’s like the ultimate show of respect, is that I don’t wanna fight Vettori at anything less than 100 percent. He’s only lost to the same dudes that I have. He’s up the top of the food chain for a reason, and I need to respect that and take that serious. Let’s say I go into the fight half cooked and I lose, no one’s going to care for my excuses. No one. I can’t come out afterwards and be like, ‘yeah, but I had this injury’. No one’s going to give a crap. All they’re going to care about is that I lost. And yeah, I don’t want to live with myself knowing that I could have done better.”
