Former Ultimate Fighting Championship beltholder Robert Whittaker is getting a local matchup for the first time in over three years.
Whittaker bounced back from a close defeat to Israel Adesanya by beating Marvin Vettori on the scorecards in September. “Bobby Knuckles” moved up to the middleweight division after beating Mike Rhodes in 2014, and he rattled off eight straight wins including a pair of championship battles against Yoel Romero in 2017 and 2017. The New Zealand-born Aussie has only suffered losses in the weight class to Adesanya, while ratting off victories over the likes of Ronaldo Souza, Jared Cannonier, Derek Brunson and Kelvin Gastelum as he remained a perennial contender.
Brazil’s Costa too picked up a win in his last outing, outworking Luke Rockhold after three rounds in a wild and bloody scrap. Before then, Costa had dropped two straight, starting with a championship knockout loss to Adesanya and then losing a five-rounder to Vettori the year after. “Borrachinha” introduced himself to the UFC roster in 2017 by running roughshod over Gareth McLellan, and then went on to wreck Oluwale Bamgbose, Johny Hendricks and Uriah Hall in rapid succession. Although his 100% finish rate came to an end when he could not knock out Romero, he punched his ticket to the title shot with a spotless record of 13-0.