Robert Whittaker Speaks Out After Lengthy Silence: ‘I Was Completely Burnt Out’

WORLD EXCLUSIVE | Four months ago @RobWhittakerMMA suddenly disappeared. Rumours emerged about donating bone marrow for his daughter. Now the Aussie #UFC star tells the real story for the first time to @NickWalshaw https://t.co/A4lKzPAnxR @UFC @UFC_AUSNZ pic.twitter.com/Pfdhqduw46

— Telegraph Sport (@telegraph_sport) April 24, 2020

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ Robert Whittaker is ready to speak up about what has kept him away from the sport the last several months.

The man known as “The Reaper” as well as “Bobby Knuckles” all-but disappeared following his knockout loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 in October 2019. Whittaker spoke with the Daily Telegraph on Friday, where he discussed his absence.

“I was completely burnt out,” Whittaker explained. When running on the Wanda dunes, a series of sand dunes in Sydney, on Dec. 25 with his teammates, something inside him clicked. “I just stopped,” he said. “Then stood there, asking ‘what the f--- am I doing?’ It was Christmas Day. My family was somewhere else. That moment, it’s when everything crashed.”

The 29-year-old is no stranger to the grind, and famously trained seven days a week. Some days, he worked upwards of five sessions. Practically the only things to slow him down have been injuries or illness, including a collapsed bowel and hernia, or a nasty bout of chickenpox that saw his skin wither, blister, burn and peel.

Many rumors swirled about the reason that Whittaker withdrew from his scheduled UFC 248 contest against Jared Cannonier. Some were more scandalous, including potential martial drama. Others were altruistic, such as a reason that he was donating bone marrow to his sick daughter. The latter may have been spawned by UFC President Dana White’s praise of the former champ, who said, “When you talk about somebody whose priorities are in the right place, who is completely selfless, and down to the core a good human being, that’s Robert Whittaker.”

His constant training took him away from his family for much of his life. “Because of my training schedule, I was missing birthdays, weddings, funerals,” he admitted. The time away from his loved ones eventually made him reevaluate his priorities, and he has since made some changes. One thing he gave up for his family was those aforementioned runs up the Wanda dunes.

“And not having those sessions, it means I can do things Saturday night too,” he proffered. “Same as I’m now playing with my kids late into Sunday afternoon rather than being spent. The changes I’ve made, it will really change my life.”

Whittaker is comfortable to speak about these issues now, when he used to “bite down on your mouth guard and work though” what was plaguing him, he is now handling them in a healthier manner. Before, he knew that “I just wasn’t myself,” but now, he feels differently.

“Not training to exhaustion every day,” he concluded, “I guess you can say I’m living.”