UFC president Dana White got a bit emotional when talking about Robert Whittaker’s UFC 248 removal.

Whittaker was scheduled to take on Jared Cannonier at UFC 248. The bout would’ve taken place on March 7. The former UFC middleweight champion pulled out due to personal reasons.

Submission Radio caught up with White, who got a bit choked up when talking about Whittaker’s situation (via BJPenn.com).


“Let me put it to you this way,” White said when asked why Whittaker withdrew from UFC 248. “That’s personal for Whittaker. If Whittaker wants to talk about that, he can, but I’ll tell you this, when you talk about somebody whose priorities are in the right place, who is completely selfless and down to the core a good human being, that’s Robert Whittaker.”

Whittaker was last seen in action back in Oct. 2019. He put the UFC middleweight gold on the line against Israel Adesanya. This was a title unification match as Adesanya held the interim gold going in. “The Last Stylebender” defeated Whittaker via second-round TKO to claim the undisputed championship.