Born on 20th December 1990, John Whittaker is a New Zealand-born Australian professional mixed martial artist who currently competes in the middleweight division at the UFC. He is a former UFC middleweight champion and a winner of the welterweight tournament at the first series of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes.
When he was seven, his father got him admitted in a Goju-ryu Karate school. After training for almost a decade, Whittaker joined a mixed martial arts gym. He immediately developed a liking towards the sport.
Whittaker made his professional MMA debut in the year 2009 at the ‘Australia's Xtreme Fighting Championships’ where he beat Chris Tallowin via TKO in the first round. Whittaker then moved to Cage Fighting Championships where he remained undefeated.
Whittaker was handed his first MMA defeat on 30th October 2011 at the Legend Fighting Championships 6 where he succumbed to Hoon Kim via submission in the first round.
In 2012 Whittaker became a part of the first series of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes. On his debut fight in the tournament, Whittaker knocked out Luke Newman in just 19 seconds.
Whittaker made his official UFC debut at UFC on FX 6 on 15 December 2012 which was also the welterweight finale of "The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes".
Whittaker faced Brad Scott in the final and won the fight via unanimous decision to become the first winner of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes series.
Whittaker moved up to the middle weight division and on 27th November 2016, he faced Derek Brunson at UFC Fight Night 101 in what turned out to be an explosive contest. In the back and forth encounter, Whittaker defeated Brunson via TKO in the first round.
Whittaker went up against Ronaldo Souza at UFC on Fox 24 on 15th April 2017 and became the first person to knock out Souza since 2008, taking the win via TKO in the second round.
Whittaker later became the undisputed champion as Georges St-Pierre, who held the middleweight title was forced to vacate the same after being diagnosed with colitis.
Whittaker himself went on a year and a half long lay-off, being forced to pull out of quite a few title defences due to a massive surgery for a collapsed bowel and abdominal hernia.
However, he lost the middleweight championship title to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243.
Whittaker and The Wonderboy went toe to toe at UFC 170 on 22 February 2014. Thompson got the better of Whittaker in the bout, winning via TKO in the opening round.
Following the loss, Whittaker went on to amass a 6 fight winning streak in the UFC.
Whittaker fought Yoel Romero for the interim UFC middleweight title at UFC 213 on 8th July 2017. Whittaker pipped Romero via unanimous decision, becoming the first Australian as well as the first New Zealand born fighter to win a UFC title.
Whittaker met Romero in a rematch which took place at UFC 225 on 9 June 2018. Romero missed weight, making the fight a non-title catchweight bout. Robert defeated Romero in a tightly contested bout via split decision.
Whittaker recently returned after a lengthy lay-off to face ‘The Last Stylebender’ Israel Adesanya on 6 October 2019 in the headliner of UFC 243 in Melbourne, Australia. A rusty looking Whittaker got knocked out emphatically in the second round, handing Adesanya the championship title.
Here is the stats of Robert Whittaker:
| Matches | Wins | Losses | Draws |
| 25 | 20 | 5 | 0 |
Listed below is the professional MMA record breakdown of Robert Whittaker:
| Result | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date |
| Loss | 20-5 | Israel Adesanya | KO (punches) | UFC 243 | 06-Oct-2019 |
| Win | 20-4 | Yoel Romero | Decision (split) | UFC 225 | 09-Jun-2018 |
| Win | 19-4 | Yoel Romero | Decision (unanimous) | UFC 213 | 08-Jul-2017 |
| Win | 18-4 | Ronaldo Souza | TKO (head kick and punches) | UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Reis | 15-Apr-2017 |
| Win | 17-4 | Derek Brunson | TKO (head kick and punches) | UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Brunson | 27-Nov-2016 |
| Win | 16-4 | Rafael Natal | Decision (unanimous) | UFC 197 | 23-Apr-2016 |
| Win | 15-4 | Uriah Hall | Decision (unanimous) | UFC 193 | 15-Nov-2015 |
| Win | 14-4 | Brad Tavares | KO (punches) | UFC Fight Night: Miocic vs. Hunt | 10-May-2015 |
| Win | 13-4 | Clint Hester | TKO (knee and punches) | UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping | 08-Nov-2014 |
| Win | 12-4 | Mike Rhodes | Decision (unanimous) | UFC Fight Night: Te-Huna vs. Marquardt | 28-Jun-2014 |
| Loss | 11-4 | Stephen Thompson | TKO (punches) | UFC 170 | 22-Feb-2014 |
| Loss | 11-3 | Court McGee | Decision (split) | UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann 2 | 28-Aug-2013 |
| Win | 11-2 | Colton Smith | TKO (punches) | UFC 160 | 25-May-2013 |
| Win | 10-2 | Brad Scott | Decision (unanimous) | UFC on FX: Sotiropoulos vs. Pearson | 15-Dec-2012 |
| Loss | 9-2 | Jesse Juarez | Decision (unanimous) | Cage Fighting Championships 21 | 18-May-2012 |
| Win | 9-1 | Shaun Spooner | TKO (punches) | Superfight Australia 13 | 23-Mar-2012 |
| Win | 8-1 | Ian Bone | TKO (punches) | Cage Fighting Championships 19 | 09-Dec-2011 |
| Loss | 7-1 | Hoon Kim | Submission (triangle choke) | Legend Fighting Championship 6 | 30-Oct-2011 |
| Win | 7-0 | Corey Nelson | Submission (armbar) | Cage Fighting Championships 18 | 26-Aug-2011 |
| Win | 6-0 | Ben Alloway | Submission (rear-naked choke) | Cage Fighting Championships 17 | 03-Jun-2011 |
| Win | 5-0 | Nate Thomson | Submission (rear-naked choke) | Cage Fighting Championships 15 | 08-Oct-2010 |
| Win | 4-0 | Jay Cobain | Submission (armbar) | Cage Fighting Championships 14 | 05-Jun-2010 |
| Win | 3-0 | Nick Ariel | KO (punch) | Cage Fighting Championships 12 | 12-Mar-2010 |
| Win | 2-0 | Richard Walsh | Submission (rear-naked choke) | Cage Fighting Championships 11 | 20-Nov-2009 |
| Win | 1-0 | Chris Tallowin | TKO (punches) | XFC 14 | 14-Mar-2009 |
Robert Whittaker got married to Sofia Maree Iannelli on Oct 25, 2014. The couple is blessed with two sons and a daughter.
As of 2019, Robert Whittaker's net worth is estimated to be about $1.5 million. Being one of the greatest UFC Fighters, most of his source of income is from mixed martial arts.
