Robert Whittaker: Many turned down UFC Sydney fight before Bogdan Guskov accepted

It wasn’t easy for Robert Whittaker to land an opponent for UFC Sydney.

Former middleweight champion Whittaker (27-9 MMA, 18-7 UFC) draws Bogdan Guskov (18-4-1 MMA, 4-2-1 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 298 co-main event on Feb. 6 from Afterpay Arena.

Whittaker was eager to compete in his hometown after not fighting there since a 2014 finish of Clint Hester. However, the UFC had to go through multiple names for Whittaker before landing on Guskov.

“I’ve climbed every mountain. I’ve done a lot of stuff, had a lot of battles and wars, and now I’m coming back to Sydney, older, more mature, heavier, but just as sharp,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “I can’t wait to get in there. … But Bogdan’s a dangerous guy. He’s tall. He’s rangy. He’s got light heavyweight power. If he gets a shot on me, it’s going to hurt.

“If light heavyweights hit you, big tall guys, 6’3″ guys that weigh 110 kilos, it’s going to hurt. The game plan’s the same: hit and don’t get hit. Keep it very simple. It’s got to be fun, man. And props to Bogdan. There were other names thrown in the hat. Everyone was either tied up or had excuses why they couldn’t do it, yada yada yada. We got to where we are. Someone took the fight, flying all the way to Sydney to do it. It’s going to be great.”

Whittaker made good on his light heavyweight debut when he scored a third-round TKO of Nikita Krylov at UFC 329 in July. He hasn’t fought in Australia since losing his UFC middleweight title to Israel Adesanya in October 2019.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Robert Whittaker: Many turned down UFC Sydney fight before Bogdan Guskov accepted