Robert Whittaker apologizes for his reaction to Islam Makhachev knocking out Alexander Volkanovski

Robert Whittaker is apologizing for his reaction to Islam Makhachev knocking out Alexander Volkanovski.

UFC 294 took place on October 21st and saw Islam Makhachev (25-1 MMA) take on Alexander Volkanovski (26-3 MMA) in the lightweight main event.

The result was a KO victory for Makhachev at 3:06 of Round 1.

Fans and fellow fighters alike gave Makhachev credit for not only defeating Volkanovski at UFC 294, but also for defeating him back in February of this year at UFC 284.

Prior to UFC 294, Robert Whittaker believed that Alexander Volkanovski had won the first fight with Islam Makhachev (even though judges ruled otherwise) and predicted he would defeat Islam on the 21st of October (even though ‘The Great’ was stepping up on short notice).

It was on a recent episode of his ‘MMAArcade’ podcast that Robert Whittaker apologized to not just the fans of the show but also directly to Makhachev for unintentionally not giving him the credit he was due after such an impressive victory:

“I just want to address it. I’m sorry if I underplayed Makhachev’s achievements in beating Volk the way he did. That was not what I intended to do even if that’s how I made it sound. I’m sorry for that, but not really to you guys, to him because I don’t want him seeing it and feeling like that.”

Continuing, Whittaker said:

“Well, I am a little bit to you guys. Now, I actually spoke to Johnny (his co-host) after the episode and was like ‘Hey Johnny, was I too harsh on Volk?’ because I thought I was a bit harsh on Volk to be honest.”

“But, you guys just made me well aware that I was not too harsh on Volk, that I was going down with him on my shield as well.”

Concluding, Robert Whittaker gave Islam Makhachev his due diligence (h/t MMANews):

“I do not take anything away from the way Makhachev did to take on the newcomer, to take on a guy that gave him such a hard time in his first fight, to have such performance, to adapt to the changing opponents. To do what he did that night, unbelievable.”  

What do you think of ‘The Reaper’ apologizing for underplaying Makhachev’s performance at UFC 294?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!