It’s certainly been a rollercoaster few weeks for , with his UFC Saudi Arabia main event fight against falling through in dramatic fashion; before replacement opponent was found less than two hours later. Speaking via the YouTube channel, former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker revealed that he ‘more or less’ found out about at the same time as fans. “I was notified the morning of, there was some discussions and then by that afternoon we had a new opponent, and the rest is history.
.. There was like two hours where we were working things out, figuring out what was happening and yeah, Ikram stepped in and now we’re fighting him.
” ‘The Reaper’ had been deep in preparation for the undefeated Chimaev, with his coach only earlier in the week sharing how their ahead of what was expected to be a wrestling-heavy game plan from ‘Borz’. “I had a pretty Chimaev-heavy game plan, Chimaev’s a pretty unique fighter and he fights in a unique way, so I worked for months leading into that, but Ikram brings a different threat to the table.” Despite acknowledging that Aliskerov remains a bonified threat that he certainly can’t take lightly, Whittaker also admitted that even as he accepted Aliskerov as a replacement opponent, he didn’t even know who he was signing up to face.
“I hadn’t heard of him or seen him fight before that, so it was just sometimes you’ve got to take things as they come and yeah, I have full faith in my skillset and my ability. �.
