Robert Whittaker went via some severe difficulties moving into the cage for his foremost occasion struggle towards Ikram Aliskerov at UFC Saudi Arabia. Not solely did he tackle a brand new opponent on per week’s discover, he did it following emergency surgical procedure to deal with a tooth abscess!
Whittaker would find yourself ending Aliskerov lower than two minutes into their struggle, reminding everybody why he’s top-of-the-line on the earth at middleweight (watch the highlights right here). And now his crew is revealing that he nearly didn’t struggle because of the painful an infection in his mouth.
“Rob has a very unhealthy abscess that flared up per week earlier than flying out,” his agent Titus Day instructed Fox Sports activities Australia. “He had complications, tooth ache, it was like he’d been kicked within the facet of the top. He couldn’t prepare, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. It was f—ing painful. The entire facet of his head was in ache so we needed to rush him in for emergency surgical procedure.”
“Rob had already stopped coaching a couple of days previous to the surgical procedure in Sydney. After which flew out together with his face nonetheless numb. We had no concept if it was going to be alright. Everybody was simply praying the swelling would go down and every thing can be OK. And fortunately, it was. However Rob’s nonetheless obtained ache there. Nonetheless wants extra surgical procedure to be carried out within the subsequent couple of weeks.”
“It got here out of nowhere,” he stated. “A couple of fights again, Rob obtained cracked and his decrease tooth moved a bit and he was going to have surgical procedure to repair that. However as an alternative, he determined to get it carried out later. However the abscess popped up out of nowhere.”
A tooth abscess is a bacterial an infection round or beneath the tooth, and it may be extraordinarily painful if it’s touching the nerve, which it sounds prefer it was for Whittaker. The state of affairs remains to be unhealthy sufficient that his agent is not sure if “The Reaper” can compete or function backup at UFC 305 on August 18th, lower than two months from now.
“Proper now, concerning Perth, it’s simply too early to say,” Day stated. “Clearly there was quite a lot of speak on the night time about Rob being the backup for that UFC 305 foremost occasion. There was additionally speak about him combating anyone else, too. And probably, he may nonetheless do both of these. He’ll have to fulfill with the crew and speak it via.”
Right here’s hoping the abscess doesn’t cease Whittaker from having the ability to take part within the upcoming Perth card. “The Reapoer” is now 2-0 in 2024, however he’ll must hold grinding if he needs to earn one other shot at his former middleweight belt. He misplaced to present champ Dricus Du Plessis in July 2023 and is 0-2 towards challenger Israel Adesanya. An alternative to step in ought to both man withdraw may be his probability at UFC gold any time quickly.
