Robert Whittaker watched his teammate Alexander Volkanovski take apart Movsar Evloev and came away wanting one more crack at the middleweight belt. The former UFC 185-pound champion said the performance has him fired up for “another title run,” according to Bloody Elbow and MMA Sucka. Bloody Elbow’s framing zeroed in on the detail that seems to have hit home for Whittaker: Volkanovski pulled it off at 38.
What the reports don’t include is a name, a card or a date. There’s no booking on the table for Whittaker, so this is a statement of intent and nothing more official than that. Plenty of fighters get inspired on a Saturday night. Fewer of them sign a bout agreement by Tuesday.
The connection is the gym. Whittaker and Volkanovski have both come up through City Kickboxing in New Zealand, a room MMA Fighting noted has housed current UFC champions Volkanovski and Carlos Ulberg, former champ Whittaker, and veteran contenders Dan Hooker and Kai Kara-France. When the guy sharing your mats is winning at 38, the calendar starts to look a little less threatening.
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Volkanovski’s stock could hardly be higher right now. Ilia Topuria, the man who beat him, told Spanish outlet ABC (via reporter KOlmenero) that Volkanovski is the best featherweight in history and that he has no interest in a rematch because he’s grown too fond of him. “Just because I beat him once doesn’t mean he can’t beat me,” Topuria said. Meanwhile, Dana White told Jim Rome he wants to make Justin Gaethje vs. Volkanovski next, though he’s waiting to hear whether Gaethje wants to keep fighting at all. MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew greeted that idea on X with “Just kill me now.”
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The middleweight picture Whittaker wants back into has its own former-champ comeback story running at the same time. Israel Adesanya, who left City Kickboxing in July after calling it home since 2009, hasn’t had his hand raised in more than three years. His last win was the knockout of Alex Pereira that won the title back. After that came an upset loss to Sean Strickland and three straight finishes at the hands of Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov and Joe Pyfer. Adesanya says he’s in the best shape he’s been in for a long time and is rumored to face Shara Bullet at UFC Saudi Arabia on Dec. 5.
My take: I’ve lost enough money on “he looked inspired” to know it’s a feeling, and feelings don’t come with a price. Volkanovski winning at 38 tells you a lot about Volkanovski. It tells you almost nothing about any other fighter, because one guy beating Father Time is a sample size of one, and I’ve watched too many people bet the exception like it’s the rule. If Whittaker gets matched with someone ranked, I’ll look at the opponent, the matchup and the line before I care about the motivation. Until then, the only former City Kickboxing middleweight champ with a fight on the horizon is Adesanya, and the market gets its first real read on him Dec. 5.
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