Robert Whittaker reveals he almost retired before agreeing to fight Darren Till
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker revealed considering retirement as a possibility before signing the contract to fight British middleweight Darren Till on July 25 at UFC Fight Island.
Robert Whittaker's last fight was a middleweight title-unification bout in October against reigning champion Israel Adesanya where the former ended up getting knocked out and lost his title. Whittaker was then scheduled to return to the Octagon against Jared Cannonier at UFC 248 but he later pulled out from the fight.
It was after pulling out of the fight against Cannonier when Robert Whittaker realized that he wanted to take some time away from the sport to spend some time with his family.
Robert Whittaker planned to hang up his gloves before agreeing to fight Darren Till
Speaking on Submission Radio, Robert Whittaker revealed that had he not found back the love and passion for the fight game during the hiatus, he might have ended up hanging his gloves.
“I knew that if during my break, if I didn’t find that spark, I would have to hang up the gloves. To be honest, like, when I went on my break, I didn’t know what to do because I was so burnt out. Even if it’s something you enjoy, if you thrash it too much, you just lose it. So, I hit a point where I was just so burnt out, I needed a break. I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t have any sort of idea on what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to go to the gym, because the gym, for me, was always a means to an end. The fight for me is always what’s driven me. I drive to the fight, I like fighting. I learn skillsets for the fight. So, with no fight in sight and the idea of not knowing if I wanted to fight anymore, I didn’t want to go to the gym."
Eventually though, the former champ found his love for fighting back and now that he is refreshed and rejuvenated, Robert Whittaker is raring to get back inside the cage with renewed vigor.
“It was weird, but eventually as I started getting rejuvenated and getting refreshed and started to unwind, that fire, that longing to get in there, to get to work, to fight, it just came back with more fervour than ever,” Whittaker continued. “That’s when I knew, it wasn’t so much what I was doing, it was the way I was doing it. I just needed to change some things and make things a little different to how I was doing them before.”