A little over a week ahead of Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero’s UFC 221 interim middleweight title fight, the UFC’s undisputed middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has shared a very positive update.
Whittaker was originally expected to defend his title against Rockhold in the main event of UFC 221, but was forced out of the fight with an undisclosed health issue. UFC President Dana White later shared a grim update on Whittaker’s condition, eluding to an out of control staph infection.
“He had staph infection in his stomach, and from what I understand it wasn’t treated properly, and it started to eat away parts of his organs,” White told TSN. “He’s in serious condition. So it’s going to be a minute before he’s back, I think. Hopefully it turns around quick, but that stuff is life-threatening, if not treated the right way.”
Luckily, it seems as though Whittaker is on the mend.
“I’m back,” Whittaker said in a Tuesday Instagram post.
This follows a similar post that came just days earlier.
“Pumped to get back to work,” Whittaker said in this earlier post.
Whittaker last fought in June, when he defeated Yoel Romero by decision to capture the interim middleweight title. When Georges St-Pierre vacated the undisputed title he won from Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November, Whittaker was promoted to undisputed champion. Though nothing is set in stone just yet, we can expect him to unify his title with the interim title owned by Rockhold or Romero later this year.
Do you think Robert Whittaker will retain his belt? Join the conversation in the comments section.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/31/2018.