ROBERT WHITTAKER UFC’S Mr Nice Guy Is Flying the Flag Down Under
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE STAR ROBERT WHITTAKER UFC’s Mr Nice Guy is flying the flag Down Under. WORDS JACK PHILLIPS ILLUSTRATION NIGEL BUCHANAN GQA0818p150 150 31/10/18 11:21 am MEN YEAR “It wasn’t my intention to become a role model for mixed martial arts,” he says coyly. “But I’m happy the shoe fits. If I could improve the conditions for athletes coming up, as well as for mixed martial arts as a sport in this country, all the better.” Intended or not, he is an Australian fighting role model. The UFC has travelled to he scene is an unassuming Australia 12 times over the years – no mean one. A man crouches in the feat for a country with 300 million fewer corner of a Jiu-Jitsu gym people than the US – and Australia holds the stretching, while a group of record for the highest attendance at any UFC Whittaker’s manager, Henry Perez, has men and women of various event. That’s 56,214 to be exact, at been in his corner since he was a fluffy ages, wearing crisp white training uniforms, Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium in 2015 when ‘chubby’ kid. Head coach, Fabricio Itte, has Tmingle, seemingly unaware of his existence. outsider Holly Holm spectacularly dethroned helped develop Whittaker’s wrestling He twists one way stretching out his groin, then undefeated Ronda Rousey. through his gym, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Smeaton bends his arm up and back so his elbow points Whittaker’s journey to the top hasn’t been Grange, for nearly eight years.
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