{"id":417909,"date":"2024-08-18T23:44:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T23:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=417909"},"modified":"2024-08-19T02:08:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T02:08:04","slug":"champ-claims-aussie-whittaker-being-done-over-by-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=417909","title":{"rendered":"Champ claims Aussie Whittaker 'being done over' by UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undisputed middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis believes Australia's Robert Whittaker deserves to be his next title fight but claims he is being "done over" by the UFC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking after retaining his UFC middleweight crown against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305<\/a> in Perth, du Plessis stated that Whittaker should be who he faces for the belt next.<\/p>\n

Du Plessis' comments come after \ufeffUFC president Dana White<\/a> suggested a rematch with American Sean Strickland after the pair went five rounds for the title in January.<\/p>\n

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\"Dricus<\/p>\n

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira also tabled a return to the division\ufeff on his social media.<\/p>\n

With du Plessis' fourth-round win over Adesanya by submission, the South African has now beaten all three of the division's big names \u2014 Adesanya, Strickland and Whittaker.<\/p>\n

A former middleweight champion, Whittaker was defeated by du Plessis in the second round at UFC 290 last year.<\/p>\n

While \ufeffStrickland \ufeffmay be the UFC's first choice, since the pair's meeting at UFC 297 in January, Strickland has only had one decision win.<\/p>\n

Whittaker will next fight Khamzat Chimaev as the co-main event at UFC 308 in the Middle East. The bout was previously set for June but was cancelled, causing Whittaker to take on Ikram Aliskerov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked \ufeffwhich fighter deserves the fight more, du Plessis made his choice without a moment of hesitation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Robert Whittaker deserves the shot. I think he's been done over," he said.<\/p>\n

"Sean Strickland's only saving grace is the fact that he went to decision with me. That's it.<\/p>\n

"So, yeah, Robert Whittaker beat [Paulo] Costa in more spectacular fashion I believe than Strickland did.<\/p>\n

"Then Whittaker stepped up to fight Khamzat, who pulled out.<\/p>\n

"So Whittaker fights, not a nobody \u2014 a great fighter [in] Ikram.<\/p>\n

"Whittaker makes it look like he's fighting an amateur, and what does he get for it? Nothing.<\/p>\n

"So then he says, 'OK, I'll fight Khamzat again'. And if he beats Khamzat you're not giving him a title shot?<\/p>\n

"So he's getting the short end of the stick, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

"But that's not on me. I'll fight whoever.<\/p>\n

"Strickland right now is the fight people want to see so that's what they'll get.<\/p>\n

"But Whittaker is definitely the one being done over in my opinion.<\/p>\n

"He's definitely more deserving but, you know, life's not fair."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Undisputed middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis believes Australia's Robert Whittaker deserves to be his next title fight but claims he is being "done over" by […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":417911,"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\/417909"}],"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=417909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417914,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417909\/revisions\/417914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/417911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}