Elbow Expose but worth posting a Knuckles Piece
The MMA fanbase can be extremely unforgiving and critical of the fighters and this is something former middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, struggles with the most.
Robert Whittaker has of course reached the highest of highs in the sport, winning the 185lb interim title back in 2017, which he was then promoted to undisputed champion following the retirement of Georges St-Pierre.
After suffering a big upset loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290 last year, Whittaker detailed seeing the MMA fanbase turn on him as they began to speculate if his career was over.
Despite that, the 33-year-old bounced back with an imposing victory over Paulo Costa just over a month ago at UFC 298, putting him back into title contention.
Robert Whittaker critical of the MMA Fanbase not making it easy for fighters
Talking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, the New Zealander said that going into his fight with the Brazilian, he was ânervousâ about a repeat of his fight with Du Plessis. After his loss to the South African, Whittaker was critical of the MMA fanbase for turning on him.
âThe higher the rise the lower the fall. To lose makes it that much harder. Now, the MMA community donât make it easy, those guys are harder than any fight, their criticism and comments are worse than any punch and any kick, donât get me wrong, I love the MMA community, theyâre the lift beneath my wings.
âBut they can turn on you at the drop of a dime. The amount of times after I lost to DDP (Dricus Du Plessis), just reading the comments over and over. Rob Whittakerâs washed, Whittakerâs done now thatâs it.â Whittaker added.
Although Whittaker was critical of the fanbaseâs tendency to turn on losing fighters, he explained that maybe itâs because they donât always separate the athletes from the fact theyâre just normal people.
One of the good guys in the sport.
Bobby Knuckles is an MMA legend