Back in February, Australian UFC fighter Robert Whittaker was set to defend his middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum. On the day of the fight, Whittaker was rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery for a hernia and a collapsed bowel. Since Whittaker had to retire from the fight, Gastelum fought Israel Adesanya for the interim championship. Adesanya came out victorious and is now set to fight Whittaker for the real middleweight title on October 6th at UFC 243.
Whittaker recently sat down with Brett Okamoto of ESPN MMA where he talked in-depth about the upcoming fight and how he's been felling the last few months. The Australian fighter explained that he doesn't really care where the venue is although he would like to battle in Australia since every time he goes there, something ends up postponing the fight. He was also asked about the health scare with Gastelum which as you can imagine, was a huge source of disappointment for Whittaker.
"After the event had happened, and I had missed it, it's one of those things where it's like 'I didn't do my job,'" Whittaker said. "That feeling lasts for a while."
Whittaker also said he's feeling "better than ever" after his surgery and that he's confident he can get into the Octagon and prove himself as the rightful owner of the UFC middleweight belt.
