UFC president Dana White was a guest on Submission Radio recently to discuss all things UFC, including Robert Whittaker.
The former champion is set to return to action, and with a win, White believes he will be next in line for the title shot.
“Nobody’s jumping over Whittaker. He’s next,” White said. “It’s both. You know, I’ve liked Robert Whittaker and I’ve believed in Robert Whittaker since the Ultimate Fighter. Lorenzo tells me all the time about, I remember he used to talk about Whittaker non-stop during the Ultimate Fighter. I thought he had what it took to possibly make it someday.
“And obviously he was next, and if he couldn’t do it, it’s no big deal. He’s not going anywhere. He’s the number one contender. Take your time, get your shit together, and we’ll get it figured out.”
As for when and where, White was unsure about Israel Adesanya and Whittaker.
“That would be absolutely, positively the fight to do there. You know how many things have to align for that to happen? First of all, the two places that I’m hearing about that have the strictest stuff still going on, are Canada and Australia,” he said. “So, you look at that. When Australia and New Zealand finally do open up, you have all those other sports there that haven’t played, all the other bands and things like that that are ready to go back on tour. So, then you gotta find the arenas to be able to play in. The list goes on and on of obstacles that would be in our way to jump right back into Australia that quickly.”
This weekend, Nate Diaz returns to action against Leon Edwards. White talked about how that all came together, as well.
“It wasn’t us convincing him, he wanted that fight. So, that kid’s got – when I say that kid, I mean Leon – has the worst luck ever. I mean, the last year and a half has been brutal for that kid. And I can’t remember what the fight was before this that fell apart, but another fight fell apart. Was it Khamzat? Yeah, Khamzat fell out again on Leon. So, Nate Diaz asked for that fight, Nate Diaz wanted that fight.”
“No, listen, Nate always wants to fight tough guys. Like you said, man, Nate isn’t not trying to fight tough guys. Just, Nate’s gonna fight when he wants to fight on his own schedule. So, Nate popped up out of nowhere, said he wanted to fight, and he picked Leon Edwards. And I think that’s pretty badass. And Leon, a guy who’s been super unlucky for the last year and a half, this was a great callout for him too, to be called out by Nate and get this fight. If he wins on Saturday night, a lot more people will know who Leon is.”
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