Robert Whittaker Passes Conor McGregor For Unwanted Record

Robert Whittaker has had an unusual reign as UFC middleweight champion.

For starters, he never actually won the belt in the Octagon. He was initially the interim middleweight champion after defeating Yoel Romero at UFC 213 in 2017.

He was then expected to face Georges St. Pierre in a title unification fight until the latter vacated his belt. “The Reaper” was promoted to middleweight champion soon after, as a result.

Whittaker was then expected to defend his title for the first time against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 only to pull out through injury.

He finally returned to the Octagon at UFC 225 last summer when he defeated Romero for the second time. However, Romero missed weight, so it didn’t count as a title defense.

And as per Fansided, Whittaker recently broke an unwanted record held by Conor McGregor as the longest reigning champion without a title defense.

As of May 3, Whittaker had gone a remarkable 512 days without defending his title. Unlike McGregor though, the Australian wasn’t completely inactive, at least as a defending champion.

For one, it’s not his fault that Romero missed weight last summer. And one also can’t blame him for getting injured, most recently pulling out from a scheduled title defense against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 234.

Whittaker, though, is expected to face interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya sometime this year in a title unification fight. The reported plan is for it to take place in October at UFC 243 in Sydney, Australia.

However, one wonders if another injury that leads to a pullout will result in Whittaker keeping his title.