Robert Whittaker

Robert John Whittaker (born 20 December 1990) is an Australian professional mixed martial artist born in New Zealand. He currently competes in the Middleweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion. A professional MMA competitor since 2009, Whittaker was a contestant on the first series of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes and won the welterweight tournament. Whittaker became interim middleweight champion after winning the title at UFC 213; he was promoted to undisputed champion after Georges St-Pierre vacated the UFC Middleweight Championship in 2017. As of September 12, 2023, he is #3 in the UFC middleweight rankings. Background Whittaker was born at Middlemore Hospital in Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand. His father is an Australian of European descent and his mother is of Māori and Samoan descent. Moving to Australia shortly after, Whittaker's father enrolled Robert, aged seven, and his brother in a Goju-ryu Karate school, to encourage them in self-discipline and self-defence. After training in the discipline for a little over eight years, and earning his black belt, his father offered him the chance to change to another sport or drop karate entirely. While his brother decided to drop out, Robert chose to switch to a Hapkido gym run by Henry Perez, following his move to Menai. Not long afterwards, Perez transformed his gym into an MMA gym. Having no other choice, Whittaker began training in MMA and was immediately hooked, choosing MMA as his preferred sport over rugby league. Whittaker was a talented rugby league player in his younger years and was placed in the development academy of the professional Cronulla Sharks club as a youth. Whittaker prefers not to engage in trash-talk outside of the octagon. As he puts it: Mixed martial arts career