Robert John Whittaker or famously known as Robert Whittaker is a professional Australian Mixed Martial Arts fighter who is currently competing for American renowned MMA promotion, Ultimate Fighting Championship in their middleweight class.
He is a former middleweight champion and is a professional since 2009. He is currently ranked #11 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. The New Zealand-born MMA star athlete, Robert Whittaker stands at a height of 6 feet inches tall and weighs around 84 kg. He has a good reach of 73 inches which he uses to his maximum use during his matches against opponents.
Robert Whittaker was born on 20 December 1990 in Auckland, New Zealand. While nothing is known about his parents, sibling and his education details. However, it is known that his father encourages both him and his brother to take up karate in Goju Ryu Karate School.
Later he went to train and practice several forms of martial arts from different tutors and institutes.
He began his professional MMA career in 2009. Whittaker signed with Australia’s Xtreme Fighting Championship and his professional MMA debut against Chris Tallinn on 14 March 2009.
Whittaker later went to compete for the Ultimate Fighter and after several impressive performances, he signed with famous American MMA promotion, Ultimate Fighting Championships in 2012.
He made his UFC debut against Brad Scott for the welterweight title of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes on 15 December 2012.
On 15 April 2017, Whittaker won against Ronaldo Souza via TKO (head kick and punches) in a UFC co-main event at Fox: Johnson vs. Reis.
After a couple of impressive victories, he later moved to the middleweight class and fought for the interim middleweight title against Yoel Romero during the event UFC 213 that took place on 8 July 2017. He again defended the title against Yoel with a split decision on 9 June 2018.
Rob lost his title to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243.
Talking about his personal life, he is a happily married man. He is married to his wife, Sofia Whittaker. The couple is blessed with three children, John, Lilliana, and Jack.
Robert Whittaker with his wife and children SOURCE: The Australian The couple, as well as the family of Robert Whittaker, is currently enjoying a happy and blissful family life with no signs of discomfort and separation. Whittaker also has legal guardianship of his younger half-sister and brothers Kerehi and Henry Matafeo.
Furthermore, he has not been linked with any sort of rumors, controversy, and affairs as he seems to be a professional MMA athlete who seems to be more focused on developing his MMA career rather being involved in any nuisance which could hamper his career.
He has earned a massive amount of wealth from his highly successful career as an MMA athlete. Even though there is no exact amount of total earning that he has generated through his career. Similarly, there are no official details concerning his net worth but looking and examining his professional career, his total net worth could be around $2 million as of 2021.
The former UFC champ has earned $3,392,000 from his UFC career. He earned his career-high paycheck of $610,000 against Yoel Romero at UFC 243.
| Event | Earnings |
| UFC 225 – Jun 9/18 – W (Romero) | $610,000 ($400,000 to show, $70,000 from Romero for missing weight, $100,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)* |
| UFC 243 – Oct 5/19 – L (Adesanya) | $440,000 ($400,000 to show, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)* |
| UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs Till– Jul 25/20 – W (Till) | $360,000 ($200,000 to show, $150,000 win bonus, $10,000 fight week incentive pay) |
| UFC 254 – Oct 24/20 – W (Cannonier) | $385,000 ($210,000 to show, $160,000 win bonus, $15,000 fight week incentive pay) |
| UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs Gastelum – Apr 17/21 – W (Gastelum) – | $456,000 ($220,000 to show, $170,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $16,000 fight week incentive pay) |
Besides, his earnings from MMA, he also makes money from endorsement deals with brands like Rival Sports, Reaper Gear, Kaplan Homes, Musashi Nutrition, Bethesda ANZ, and Sweatcentral.
