Robert Whittaker lived up his name the reaper taking Ikram Aliskerov’s soul in round 1 with a vicious KO. Whittaker made a statement with his performance tonight demonstrating just how dangerous he can be. This was an amazing main event to cap the night off at UFC Saudi Arabia.
Whittaker vs Aliskerov
As the fight started things didn’t look bad for Ikram who was cautiously pressing Whittaker who bounced around on the outside. Gradually Whittaker began to engage utilising his jab. As the round went on Whittaker continued to open up eventually stunning Ikram with a big right hand sending Ikram reeling. Rob then pressed his concussed opponent with jabs and threw his famous 1-2 head kick combo. Then he put Ikram out with a jab right uppercut combo rendering him unconscious.
Although a Whittaker win was expected the fashion Bobby Knuckles delivered it was sensational. Prior to this Whittaker hadn’t gotten a finish since 2017 where he dispatched of Jacare Souza in 2 rounds. He has gotten close in fights since then such as against Jared Cannonier however was unable to get the job done. But this time Whittaker took care of business with ease showing levels.
What’s Next
Rob has plenty of options after that stunning performance. He could potentially look to have the Khamzat fight rescheduled however we have no idea how long Khamzat will be out for. Another fight that could make sense is Sean Strickland. Both guys need high ranking wins and longer winning streaks so this would work out perfectly. And given there will be a Perth card in August with Izzy vs Dricus as the header a Rob vs Sean co-main would make perfect sense.
For Ikram there is no shame in losing to such a highly ranked and well regarded fight as Rob. And with how massive the jump up in competition was not many expected an Ikram win. He can easily build himself back up beat a few unranked guys and then make a start on the lower end of the top 15. But with a KO like that Ikram will need some time out to recover properly
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
