Robert Whittaker says the middleweight chapter is closed, and the move to light heavyweight has already changed how he feels heading into his first fight in the new division. The 35-year-old will face Nikita Krylov at UFC 329 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Whittaker said the cut to 185 pounds had become a grind, while the new division has left him better fueled, better recovered and in a better mood during camp. He called the change life-changing and said he is very happy at 205 pounds, where the weight cut still exists but is not nearly as brutal.
That is why the search around Whittaker has shifted so sharply. After 12 years around 185 pounds and earlier work at welterweight, he is making a public break from the weight class that built his name. He said he moved up, finished the back end of camp at City Kickboxing and brought his whole tribe with him to the fight itself, a detail that fits the sense that this is less a tweak than a reset.
The reset matters because it comes after a rough stretch in the cage. Whittaker is on a two-fight losing streak, dropping a split decision to Reinier de Ridder before losing by submission to Khamzat Chimaev, and he said he did not enjoy the last couple of camps or the last couple of fights. That strain is part of why he said he had to change something or risk not continuing.
Nikita Krylov brings his own edge to the matchup. He is 9-7 in UFC fights at 205 pounds, knocked out Modestas Bukauskas in January and owns wins over Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir and Johnny Walker. For Whittaker, though, the larger issue is whether the lighter cut can give him the kind of spring in camp that was missing before.
He said he definitely has a few more fights in him now, even if he does not want to keep going for another five years. He talked about wanting to play Masters soccer someday, but for now the question is simpler: whether the former middleweight can carry this new energy into Saturday and make the move look permanent.
