{"id":403770,"date":"2024-06-17T07:16:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T07:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=403770"},"modified":"2024-06-17T10:06:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T10:06:23","slug":"whittakers-shock-reveal-ahead-of-crucial-ufc-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=403770","title":{"rendered":"Whittaker's shock reveal ahead of crucial UFC fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC<\/a> star R\ufeffobert Whittaker<\/a> has made a name for himself by taking on any and all comers inside the octagon – but his next challenge is even more insane.<\/p>\n

The former middleweight world champion was slated to face the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev on June 23 (AEST) in Saudi Arabia, with the winner likely to earn a title shot.<\/p>\n

However, when Chimaev was ruled out due to illness, Whittaker was left in limbo as the promotion scrambled to find him a suitably-ranked new opponent.<\/p>\n

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The search would end with Ikram Aliskerov\ufeff, who has won his past seven MMA bouts and has only suffered one loss in his 16-fight career against Chimaev.<\/p>\n

After spending months preparing for a fight against Chimaev, Whittaker showed no reluctance to take on Aliskerov – despite being completely unfamiliar with his work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I was notified the morning of, there was some discussions and then by that afternoon we had a new opponent, and the rest is history," he told The New York Post.<\/p>\n

"There was like two hours where we were working things out, figuring out what was happening and yeah, Ikram stepped in and now we're fighting him.<\/p>\n

"Ikram brings a different threat to the table. I hadn't heard of him or seen him fight before that. Sometimes you've got to take things as they come. He's alright, I've watched some tape … but there's not too much [to learn about] to be honest.<\/p>\n

"I have full faith in my skillset and my ability."<\/p>\n

Whittaker (\ufeff25-7) last fought in the co-main event of UFC 298 back in February, securing an impressive unanimous decision victory over Paulo Costa.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old is ranked \ufeffthird in the 185lb division and a win over Aliskerov would likely put Whittaker in the box-seat to challenge for the gold later this year.<\/p>\n

Current champion Dricus du Plessis is expected to defend the strap against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in August at Perth's RAC Arena, with the winner on a collision course with Whittaker if he can get through this weekend unscathed. \ufeff<\/p>\n

It has been a dramatic week for Dana White's company, with megastar Conor McGregor withdrawing from his UFC 303 showdown with Michael Chandler due to injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alex Pereira<\/a> and Jiri Prozachka will clash in a rematch for the light-heavyweight crown in the new main event on June 30. \ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UFC star R\ufeffobert Whittaker has made a name for himself by taking on any and all comers inside the octagon – but his next challenge […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=403770"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403775,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403770\/revisions\/403775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/403772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=403770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=403770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=403770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}