Dana White waxed lyrical about Robert Whittaker after he withdrew from a huge fight during a difficult time in his career.
This coming Saturday, former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker returns to action when he takes on Reinier De Ridder in the UFC Abu Dhabi main event.
Whittaker hasn’t fought since October last year when he had his jaw crushed by Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308, resulting in him requiring surgery to fix his teeth.
De Ridder on the other hand is on a tear since joining the premier promotion last November and in his last outing, he pulled off the huge upset win over the undefeated Bo Nickal.
‘The Reaper’ has long been a contender in the middleweight division and throughout his time in the UFC, he has built a positive relationship with UFC boss Dana White.
Dana White was left emotional after Whittaker withdrew from huge fight
After losing his UFC middleweight title to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243, Whittaker looked to rebound and return to title contention with a win over Jared Cannonier at UFC 248,
At the time it was a relatively big fight booking as Adesanya was set to headline the same event against Yoel Romero, and with a win over Cannonier, ‘The Reaper’ would’ve been on a similar timeline to ‘The Last Stylebender’, potentially securing himself the title shot.
Despite that, though, not long before the event, Whittaker pulled out of his fight against ‘The Killa Gorilla’ and wild rumors began to circulate regarding why he withdrew.
Initially, it was rumoured that Whittaker pulled out as one of his children was ill and required a bone marrow transplant, however, that rumor was eventually squashed by Whittaker who thankfully stated that his children were fine.
However, during an interview before the event, Dana White got emotional when talking about Whittaker’s withdrawal, labelling him one of the most selfless people he’s ever met.
“Let me put it to you this way, that’s personal for Whittaker, if Whittaker wants to talk about that, he can but I’ll tell you this, when you talk about somebody whose priorities are in the right place, who is completely selfless and down to the core a good human being, that’s Robert Whittaker,” White told Submission Radio as he began to get choked up.
“The reason Robert Whittaker is not fighting in this fight is one of the most unselfish things I’ve ever seen in my life, he’s a good man, a good human being and I have a lot of respect for him… I can’t put into words and articulate how I feel about Robert Whittaker,” White continued.
Whittaker explained how withdrawal was due to burnout
Even to this day, it is unclear whether White believed the rumors regarding Whittaker’s withdrawal or if he was being supportive of one of his stars regardless.
But not long after, the former middleweight champion came out and explained how his withdrawal was due to being burnt out in the sport after years of competing at the top level.
“I didn’t speak to Dana directly but the UFC knew why I had withdrawn,” Whittaker told The Daily Telegraph.
“I love fighting, and it’s something I’m good at. But you can’t keep fighting like I was trying to,” he continued as he went into detail about missing important family events.
Fortunately for Whittaker and the UFC fans, his love and passion for the sport returned soon after and he continued to put on incredible displays in the UFC Octagon.