Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is contemplating a move to light heavyweight, which is something Chael Sonnen would love to see.
Sonnen can speak from experience because he challenged for the UFC middleweight and light heavyweight titles – in back-to-back fights, no less.
With Whittaker’s career in an interesting place, Sonnen would love to see the former champ make the move up to 205 pounds because he believes there are advantages, and returning to 170 pounds where he began his UFC career is not an option.
“Let’s encourage that,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I am so completely for that idea, and I don’t totally know what would happen. I just know I’ve never seen Robert Whittaker quit ever. And I also know another thing: The old expression ‘father time catches everyone,’ that’s not what’s happening with Whittaker.”
While Sonnen acknowledges Whittaker, 34, is approaching the tail end of his career, he doesn’t believe it’s a major concern just yet. Sonnen credits Whittaker’s recent loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 as a result of simply being caught against a tough, undefeated opponent.
With age comes a drop off in speed and slower reaction time. Sonnen believes as those days get closer, Whittaker can take advantage of still being a speedy fighter by taking on larger fighters now.
“A great way to mask it is to go up in weight, because those guys are slower,” Sonnen said. “There has always been the misconception that size is better. It doesn’t matter how many times it gets shown to the audience that size is a detractor. It got shown to the world Saturday in (Tyson) Fury vs. (Oleksandr) Usyk. The whole world saw it. There is no such thing as a reach advantage, a height advantage, or a size advantage.
“The word advantage just means more. In the world of fighting when they say he has a reach advantage, they’ve used the wrong word. They’ve used the wrong word from the history of time, but it’s reprogrammed people. It just means he has more reach. Height advantage, it just means he’s got more height, but statistically speaking, they’re not going to show me a time when that’s actually been an advantage.”
Considering the logjam at the top of the middleweight division, the shorter path to a UFC title may be in the light heavyweight division. Sonnen believes the title picture is so convoluted at the moment, and Whittaker doesn’t embrace the entertainment side of the business to jump the line.
Despite believing Whittaker still possesses the skills to capture gold in the division, Sonnen thinks his best move is to change weight classes.
“I love the idea of him going to 205 pounds,” Sonnen said. “… Robert Whittaker vs. Anthony Smith is very interesting to me. … Right off the bat, I can see meaningful matches for Robert Whittaker at 205 pounds, and you know what I can’t do? He would be a top draw, and I would not disrespect Robert Whittaker, but I don’t have a match that’s jumping off the page for me at 185.
“Robert Whittaker vs. Khalil Rountree is a main event, right now. I just like the idea of 205.”
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