Robert Whittaker has revealed the extent of the knee injury which he suffered in his interim middleweight title fight win earlier this month at UFC 213.
The 26 year-old Aussie, who defeated Cuba’s Yoel Romero to become the first Australian based UFC champion, spoke with The Daily Telegraph on Friday and revealed a grade two partial tear of the medial is the diagnosis.
Whittaker suffered the injury off of a brutal Romero kick in the very first round of the clash that left his knee unstable and hampered his movement throughout the fight. He was, however, able to rally and claim a unanimous decision against the dangerous Cuban.
Whittaker commented on the severity of the injury, which will thankfully not require surgery, “The injury itself, it’s not really my job to understand. All I can say is that it’s a serious grade two medial, and hurt like hell when it happened.”
Recovery from a typical injury of this nature can take up to eight weeks, and with a number of niggling injuries frustrating the Aussie in recent times, Whittaker will now look to heal up and will likely not be ready to face middleweight champion Michael Bisping until 2018.
“I just need to get my body healed and, once that happens, I’ll fight anyone in the world.”
