After suffering a brutal injury to his mandible at the hands of undefeated contender and budding superstar Khamzat Chimaev, ‘The Reaper’ finds himself on the outside of the middleweight title picture looking in.
Fighters like Chimaev, Sean Strickland, Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho and even Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez are all poised to potentially challenge for the belt soon, while Whittaker is now 3-3 in his last three fights and has been finished twice.
At age 33 he is not done by any means, but the sad truth is that no fighter has ever regained a title they lost as long ago as Rob lost his middleweight title; the five-year mark passed earlier this month.
Whittaker must take a step back in the division now. Really, the perfect fight for him would be one of these surging contenders who do have a chance to fight for the belt soon.
Fifth-ranked Imavov and sixth-ranked Borralho make the most sense according to the rankings, as Rob is now ranked fourth, the lowest he has been in years. Nassourdine is on a three-fight win streak while Caio has not suffered defeat since 2015, including a 7-0 UFC record.
Borralho is the more prolific grappler, so making him face Whittaker rather than Adesanya will be more of a challenge for him. However, despite his grappling background he has grown in leaps and bounds as a striker, as evidenced by his dominant showing against Jared Cannonier.
The 31-year-old would be right on the door of a title shot with a win over Whittaker, though the line at the top of the queue is backed up a bit.
From Robert’s POV, he will need more than just one win to make a statement that he is still a challenger to be feared.
Either way, Whittaker vs Borralho is an excellent fight with high stakes in an interesting UFC middleweight division.
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