An Australian UFC fighter who broke his hand in the first round of a near-24 minute fight claims he doesn’t know how the injury occurred.
Robert Whittaker defeated Cuban wrestler Yoel Romero in an intense five-round bout at UFC 225, at the United Centre in Chicago on Sunday.
Early in the piece, however, things went slightly awry for the New Zealand-born, Sydney-based champ.
‘All I really remember is that at some point I couldn’t feel anything from my fingertips to my forearm,’ said Whittaker, in conversation with The Daily Telegraph.
‘And it wasn’t coming good.’
Australian UFC fighter Robert Whittaker (pictured: left) broke his hand in the first round of a near-24 minute fight on Sunday – but claims he doesn’t know how the injury occurred
Despite his injury, Whittaker went on to defeat Cuban wrestler Yoel Romero in an intense five-round bout at UFC 225, at the United Centre in Chicago
Otherwise known as ‘Bobby Knuckles’, has damaged his hand in fights before – just never quite as bad as this.
‘I’ve fought with a broken hand previously but this break was much worse,’ he said.
‘You can see in the X-ray, it’s a clean break, not a little fracture in the metacarpal or something like that.’
In spite of the injury – as well as a bruised and swollen face, damaged ankles and a broken tooth – Whittaker went on to win the match by split decision.
‘I’ve fought with a broken hand previously but this break was much worse,’ said Whittaker. ‘You can see in the X-ray, it’s a clean break, not a little fracture in the metacarpal or something like that’
Before the fight, Whittaker was keen to put on a good show to consolidate his already impressive reputation after outpointing Romero in a memorable interim title fight last July.
‘Pay attention – on Sunday I’m going to put on fireworks and I’ll put on a show,’ he said.
‘I’ve been trying to increase my skill sets across the board so come the fight, you’re going to see a collective gain of all those which will result in me being better.
Whittaker (pictured: left) also suffered a bruised and swollen face, damaged ankles and a broken tooth
Whittaker was keen to put on a good show to consolidate his already impressive reputation after outpointing Romero in a memorable interim title fight last July
‘I’m going to be a better version of me, he had a hard enough time dealing with the first one, we’ll see how he handles the second one.’
Fellow Australian fighter Tai ‘Bam Bam’ Tuivasa defeated Andrei Arlovski on the event’s undercard, and celebrated in style with a ‘shoey’.
He asked commentator Joe Rogan if he could borrow his shoe to drink out of before finding one in the crowd.
He also walked out to Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ – the theme from Titanic – as his entrance music.
The western Sydney heavyweight improved his record to 10-0, and is set to move into the top 10 heavyweight rankings.
In the women’s division, Holly Holm defeated Australian Megan Anderson via unanimous decision.