Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker previews battle with middleweight Paulo Costa

NicheSportMedia

Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker previews battle with middleweight Paulo Costa  Robert Whittaker (25-7, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) intends to deliver a flawless performance against Costa and find his way back to title contention No. 3 UFC middleweight Former UFC middleweight champion 10 wins by knockout, five via submission Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Transcript

00:00 Rob

00:02 Obviously a big fight week again, these are you know, nothing new to you at this point

00:06 But this one does seem crucial given how the last fight went and stuff

00:09 Do you feel like this is kind of got a big bearing on the future from here this matchup?

00:15 Probably not as much as you think it does, right? I

00:19 Every fight to me is do or die

00:23 You know, so that's why that's the only reason why losing sucks so much, right? So

00:28 But we looked at a lot of things

00:30 In the last prep and the last fight in the way I felt in the fight the mentality surrounding it and we made adjustments

00:38 and

00:39 Yeah, they're gonna pay dividends on Saturday

00:41 You've obviously, you know experienced defeat before and setbacks and you've always been able to kind of recalibrate

00:47 But as you kind of just explain there you looked into the things

00:50 Was there stuff that you were maybe overlooking and feeling like hey, this seemed like it was right until it was proven wrong

00:57 Not really it's

00:59 It's one of those things where everything in hindsight is 2020 so

01:06 We there were some things that were sub-optimal in the last camp

01:10 there were some obstacles that we had to work with and work around and

01:14 End of the day the result is what it was and it wasn't the result we were after

01:21 So what we did was we adjusted we made some changes we threw ourselves straight back into the gym

01:26 And here I am once again, yeah and Paulo's here as well

01:31 We saw him a couple hours ago at this point

01:32 Like is it a little bit of a sigh of relief knowing that he made it in town and it seems like everything is good

01:37 I wasn't I was never worried to be honest and but he's here. I'm here. We're fighting

01:43 And how do you think this plays out? I mean, you've obviously had multiple opportunities to think about it

01:48 I don't know if the game plan or the approach has evolved over time

01:51 But as you go in here, like what do you kind of make of him and assess this matchup?

01:56 I

01:57 He's a great fighter. He's been in the conversation of the top ten forever. Like he's a yeah, he's

02:02 He's a good fighter. He's a power puncher. He pushes forward and he likes controlling and dictating the fight through that way

02:10 But I don't think he's encountered anyone like me. I don't think anyone has until they come up against me and

02:16 Mate, I've done everything for I've ticked every box across every T

02:22 I've done it every I in the last few months leading up to this fight. So I'm going into this fight

02:27 Cochran ready. Yeah, obviously it's got a lot of stakes to you

02:32 I mean

02:32 I think a middleweight fight has headlined every card so far this year and now you guys have the Komen event a lot of you

02:38 Know important results and stuff. Where do you think this factors in to I guess the overall hierarchy of the middleweight division?

02:44 The middleweight division is moving. It's moving a lot. There's a lot of fluidity in it and is rife with opportunity

02:50 You know winning opens doors more more so now than ever

02:54 Do you have any theories of why in these past few fights? No one's been able to defend that belt

02:59 It's been for new champions in the past four middleweight title fights. My fighting side and I think I think

03:05 Yeah, it depends who shows up on the night

03:08 Honestly, it was like that with the the Sean and Rick is was like that with Sean and that easy

03:13 This is what it is

03:16 Who would be a more important rematch to get back for you at this point? Dracus or is he do you think?

03:21 Dracus is a sore spot for me because I didn't turn up I didn't perform and

03:30 You know, it's important for me to run that back

03:34 Do you think it's a good idea for him to make a quick turnaround for UFC 300 like they seemingly want to do with him?

03:40 And maybe Izzy or Homs on

03:45 Well, I don't know maybe you want him to still be the guy on top when you fight for that belt again

03:49 It's fine. Perfect. Thanks, Rob

03:52 If the UFC does go down that route for UFC 300, but Drake is it potentially is he's how do you see that fight going?

03:59 Right who can say no one saw Sean beating easy, right? So

04:04 Like yeah, good anything anything could happen a big win for you over Apollo cost

04:11 So it'd be the perfect start for you in 2024. So what are your goals to have done by by the end of this year?

04:16 I want to beat Costa. That's that's to do list right now. That's as far as my calendar goes

04:24 And I know you've mentioned on embedded and everything that you're a big video game guy

04:29 So my question you in regards to this is are there any video games that are unreleased or not?

04:33 Released yet that you're looking forward to playing with your family and your kids dragons dogma - I am frothing on it

04:40 And if my it comes out in March, so that is perfect

04:45 Good little post fight treat for you then if that happens, but um, obviously Australian MMA has grown exponentially throughout the years

04:53 What do you think needs to happen for us?

04:56 I did kind of shift gears into a higher level in terms of remain the continuous growth of the sport out there. Can you say?

05:02 Where sorry like what do you think needs to happen for for Australian MMA?

05:07 So, you know keep growing more than what it already is. I mean, have you seen the trajectory of Australian mixed martial arts?

05:12 Like it is it is growing at a rate

05:16 It's gonna be one of the fastest growing countries at the moment for for mixed martial arts. I think

05:22 It's it's doing it's going, you know, I mean, I don't think there's anything that needs to be done because

05:28 Like at home, it seems like an MMA gym is popping up on every corner just about and we're having more and more MMA

05:35 New Zealand athletes come out of the area. So my whatever we're doing to keep doing it

05:41 Fell off surely and Volkanovsky's headlining this card. So how do you see his fight going?

05:46 Right. I understand

05:48 Tepore's like

05:50 He's he's a demon in the division. You know, he's he's yeah

05:54 He's a nightmare for a lot of people but I think be very hard very hard to bet against folk

05:59 like folks probably the best for the way to ever do it he's

06:04 Sensational anyone's gonna anyone's gonna back up it's gonna be him

06:07 Rob Polo is in here earlier and he was saying that despite the fact he hasn't fought

06:12 He's had like a couple of camps right before the fight fell apart

06:15 And so he's improved a lot as a fighter

06:16 But do you think you kind of need to have those fights in between camps to be able to put what you've been working on?

06:21 Into practice because otherwise if you go in there, could you just revert to type if you haven't been using them in live situations?

06:27 100% it's like a sprinter learning how to sprint by reading

06:32 Can't practice that you need it. You need to get in there. You need to you need to test the waters

06:38 You need to see what happens like as much as I hate the way the the fight played out with drukers

06:43 I learned a lot from it. I remember the feelings I had in there

06:47 So now I know what I need to make sure not to happen again

06:50 Was that a unique experience the drink is fire

06:53 How do you ever experience something similar to that previously and you sort of felt?

06:57 Oh, I recognize this or was it just completely like oh shit. I'm not firing when I should be and so it was different

07:02 I'll do that

07:04 You uh, you've mentioned a couple of times in the billets

07:07 Is that you've trying to bring the beast back and you're going in there to hurt Paul?

07:10 They're not just beat him. How does that look in training?

07:13 What exactly do you need to do practically to bring the beast out and be more aggressive? I'll also address

07:17 I think people are misunderstanding. It's not personal. There's nothing personal like we're in the fight game

07:22 I'm trying to hurt him as a means to victory. That's and you know, respectfully. I'm sure he's trying to do the same thing. It's

07:30 Just one of those things where I I want I don't want to just win, you know, I want to finish him

07:36 I want to get in there and I want to finish him

07:38 I want to put all the work that I've spent months

07:40 Doing and grinding it and bleeding and sweating for to action and I think that is how I will get satisfaction

07:47 Is that something you can train specifically aggression? You just train that in the way hip pads and the way you spar or how do you?

07:54 I think I think it's a mentality I do

07:56 I think it is how the way you approach training for the months out of a fight every

08:00 Every time I went to the gym, I was trying to win everything. I was trying to win my pad sessions

08:06 I was trying to win my matches my my rolls my rounds my spas everything everything

08:13 I wanted to win I wanted to turn into a dogfight. I wanted to

08:15 Yeah, give everything I had and I do think that bleeds over is that just something like the drinks fight almost?

08:24 Can happen and reignite your passion for the sport and passion for training

08:28 Whereas if you've been doing it successful so long

08:30 You can almost go up and go to work as opposed to going there and try and win my complacency is a toxin

08:36 you know it creeps up on you don't realize it's there until it is and

08:39 As much as I I hate the way it happened. It was kind of kick up the ass. I needed

08:45 Alright? [laughs]

08:47 (laughing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended