Former UFC champion Robert Whittaker is currently on the sidelines with an injury.
Whittaker was scheduled to face Marvin Vettori at UFC 275 later this year.
However, as he explained to Submission Radio, that is no longer the case.
“I don’t want to get into it too much, cause I don’t want to highlight my injury, but it was something that I took… so, I had a niggling injury leading into the camp,” he said. “And I didn’t have the fight signed then, so I was cool with it just healing and everything. And then the fight got presented to me and everything just lined up. Like I mentioned in the last interview, it was Singapore, it was Vettori, I was excited to just get back in there and get back to work.
“And I jumped straight back into training. I got back in the gym that week and I just felt pain. I wasn’t performing the way I wanted it to, and I wasn’t comfortable with the way I was able to move and everything and work on it. So, from that I went away, I got assessed and everything like that, and then we were like, okay, what we can do is, this is what’s happened, this is the rehab program you need to do to work it back out, to get everything back in order, and then you can get back in the full camp and do what you need to do.
“I got out, started doing rehab, started doing strengthening work, was grinding and hustling as best I could, but we reached a point where I think it was the week I pulled out – where and I would like to say, not pulled out, let’s just say pushed back.
“You know, I would love to – I still want to fight Vettori. I think he’s a great fight and I still want that fight to happen. I just need a little bit more time. But like I was saying, the week I pulled out, it was just one of those things, I hadn’t been able to train properly and the injury still wasn’t healed. And a big thing is, I didn’t get to where I am today half-assing things. You know, not making the smart decisions.
“So, if for me pushing it back a couple of months to make sure I’m at a hundred percent so Vettori gets my hundred percent best is what I need to do, then it’s what I need to do. And let me say, the MMA community can sometimes can be bloody brutal.”
