Robert Whittaker Clarifies Coach’s Georges St-Pierre Comparison
Robert Whittaker is preparing for the biggest fight of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career. He’ll headline UFC 243 on pay-per-view (PPV) this weekend in Australia, taking on Israel Adesanya to unify their 185-pound titles.
Speaking ahead of the event, Robert Whittaker’s jiu-jitsu coach, Alex Prates, called Whittaker a better version of Georges St-Pierre.
“Maybe you’ll see Robert Whittaker using a style that I think is the one that suits him better but he never really needed it because it was always comfortable for him on the feet for most of his fights,” Prates said.
“With Yoel Romero, for example, it would have been stupid to try to take him down. But Robert has great wrestling and great timing. I honestly think Robert is a better version of GSP. And we might see this now.”
In an interview with BJPenn.com, Whittaker offered some clarity on his coach’s comments, saying he believes Prates’ comments were lost in translation.
“Honestly, I think there was a fair bit of misunderstanding in translation,” Whittaker said. “He is a huge fan, he will be the first to admit he is a huge fan of Georges St-Pierre. I think it came across wrong of how he spoke about it.”
In 2017, Whittaker came close to fighting St-Pierre. While holding the interim middleweight title, St-Pierre became the undisputed 185-pound champion of the world. Instead of unifying their titles, St-Pierre vacated his belt due to an injury, promoting Whittaker to undisputed champion. Whittaker explained the prospect of fighting St-Pierre was both exciting, and unfortunate.
“I am a huge fan of Georges St-Pierre and I think he is one of the GOATs for sure,” Whittaker said. “When I was the interim champ, I was looking forward to that camp, but yes and no. No, because he is such a nice guy and as a fan, I didn’t want to fight him. But, in the same perspective as a fan, I wanted to fight him.
“It is such a good fight and such a fight that will set the standard for me. I’m happy with the result, I’m happy we didn’t get to fight.”
What do you think of a potential clash between Whittaker and St-Pierre?
