{"id":303527,"date":"2019-02-26T06:01:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T14:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=303527"},"modified":"2019-02-26T06:01:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T14:01:35","slug":"robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker was supposed to defend his title against Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC 234 earlier this month, but was unfortunately forced out of the fight on the day of, and rushed to the hospital with a collapsed hernia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whittaker now faces a tough recovery process that could keep him out of action for some time. To combat his absence, the UFC has booked an interim middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Gastelum for UFC 236 on April 13. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to ESPN recently, Whittaker shared his ideal timeframe for his return \u2014 though he admitted things are still quite up in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey said that after about two weeks I can start to walk again and then about four weeks I can start to ease back into training and movement and things like that and then just take it from there,\u201d Whittaker said (transcript via <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"MMA Fighting (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2019\/2\/26\/18241124\/robert-whittaker-ufc-236-interim-title-fight-are-adesanya-and-gastelum-gonna-fight-for-cejudos-belt\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cThe main thing is not to lift because obviously my intestine and bowels are a bit funny with the scarring and cuts that I had to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c. . . I\u2019ve penned in my diary \u2018August\u2019 but my biggest calendar is just my health. I\u2019ve never had a hard timeline on when I fight ever. It\u2019s just one of those things, I need to get better, when I\u2019m better I train, and then I fight to the best of my ability. So I think August is a good date. I think, obviously I have to let Adesanya and Gastelum fight and then when they\u2019re ready I\u2019ll give them a run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Robert Whittaker is happy that Kelvin Gastelum and Israel Adesanya have found a way <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-encourages-adesanya-and-gastelum-to-fight-yoel-romero-if-they-want-something-to-do\/\">to stay busy<\/a> in his stead, he does seem to think there are more deserving contenders for a shot at the interim belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;s also wondering if the pair with fight for Henry Cejudo&#8217;s flyweight belt, which Gastelum famously borrowed after UFC 234. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was happy for them,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cI think it\u2019s good. I think it\u2019s good for both of them. I think they jumped the queue a little bit and I feel for the other middleweight contenders, the top dudes, but I think it\u2019s good for them to fight it out, to have to have that run before they get a shot at me. I need a little bit of time and they\u2019ve got something to do now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c . . . A better thing to ask is are Adesanya and Gastelum gonna fight for Cejudo\u2019s belt? [Laughing] Or is it gonna be a new one? Does he give it back? I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When do you think we&#8217;ll see Robert Whittaker back in the cage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article first appeared on&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><em>BJPENN.COM<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;on 2\/25\/2019.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker was supposed to defend his title against Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC 234 earlier this month, but was unfortunately forced out of the fight on the day of, and rushed to the hospital with a collapsed hernia. Whittaker now faces a tough recovery process that could keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":301722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10582,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker was supposed to defend his title against Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC 234 earlier this month, but was unfortunately forced out of the fight on the day of, and rushed to the hospital with a collapsed hernia. Whittaker now faces a tough recovery process that could keep [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-26T14:01:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-26T14:01:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robert-Whittaker-6.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-26T14:01:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-26T14:01:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\"},\"wordCount\":466,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Robert Whittaker\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\",\"name\":\"Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-26T14:01:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-26T14:01:35+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-shares-ideal-timeframe-for-ufc-return\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Robert Whittaker shares ideal timeframe for UFC return\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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