UFC 234 News: Robert Whittaker injured and undergoes surgery; new main event for UFC 234
What's the story?
It appears that a title defence might just not be on the cards for UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker. For the third time in his career since winning the Championship, Whittaker's title fight, this time scheduled for UFC 234: Whittaker vs Gastelum, has been scrapped.
Robert Whittaker was able to successfully make weight for the competition ahead of his fight with Kelvin Gastelum. But immediately afterwards, he began to suffer from several symptoms.
Over the course of the night, his condition worsened and he had to be taken to the hospital where it was revealed that he needed surgery.
In case you didn't know...
Whittaker defeated Yoel Romero at UFC 213 to become the new Middleweight Champion. Since then he has not gotten around to having even one defence of his title. In the last Australian UFC headliner, he was supposed to defend his title against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 in Perth, but due to multiple injuries, he was not able to make the bout.
The next time, it was Yoel Romero who was not able to make weight and as a result, the two participated in a Catchweight Bout instead. And now, Whittaker's Title defence has been scrapped for the third time in a row.
The heart of the matter
Whittaker developed symptoms and began to feel ill overnight after having successfully made weight for his title fight against Kelvin Gastelum.
He had to be taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a Hernia and forced to immediately undergo surgery. As a result, he was automatically withdrawn from the event, as was Gastelum.
The previous co-headliner between Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya will be the new main event for the card instead.
What's next?
There is no timeline for Whittaker's injury at the moment, or when he could return to the Octagon to finally defend his Middleweight Title.
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