Instagram<\/a> earlier this evening where he released the following statement to his fans regarding his withdrawal from UFC 248.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B7Zx5xvnpGI\/?igshid=1phmimmnqcvc6<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry to all my friends, supporters and family for not being able to fight in March. A lot has happened over the 13 last month\u2019s and I need to take some time now to be with my family, slow things down and refocus.\u201d Robert Whittaker explained. \u201cSorry to everyone again but I\u2019ll be back. The best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to his title loss to \u2018Stylebender\u2019, Whittaker was riding a nine-fight win streak which included two victories over Yoel Romero.<\/p>\n
As for Jared Cannonier, the streaking middleweight contender has not yet received a replacement opponent to fill in for Robert Whittaker.<\/p>\n
There has been some talk of Darren Till potentially replacing \u2018The Reaper\u2019 against Cannonier, but nothing has been made official by the promotion as of this time.<\/p>\n
What do you think of the statement released by former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker regarding his decision to withdraw from his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier? Sound off in the comments section Penn Nation!<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on bjpenndotcom January 16, 2020<\/p>\n
Stay glued to this site for all of your mixed martial arts news!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier due to personal reasons. The bout was supposed to mark Whittaker\u2019s first since surrendering his middleweight title to Israel Adesanya at UFC 243 this past October. \u2018The Reaper\u2019 took to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54478,"featured_media":319124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10582,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.\" \/>\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-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\" \/>\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=\"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robert-Whittaker-7.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=\"Harry Kettle\" \/>\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=\"Harry Kettle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\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-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry Kettle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/2b63d73ee27460b473ff175d1d273460\"},\"headline\":\"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\"},\"wordCount\":284,\"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-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\",\"name\":\"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#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 issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/2b63d73ee27460b473ff175d1d273460\",\"name\":\"Harry Kettle\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/harry-kettle\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com","description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robert-Whittaker-7.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Harry Kettle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry Kettle","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry Kettle","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/2b63d73ee27460b473ff175d1d273460"},"headline":"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier","datePublished":"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/"},"wordCount":284,"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-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/","name":"Robert Whittaker issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-17T03:56:45+00:00","description":"Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has released a statement after he was forced to pullout of his slated UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-issues-statement-after-pulling-out-of-ufc-248-bout-with-jared-cannonier\/#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 issues statement after pulling out of UFC 248 bout with Jared Cannonier"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/2b63d73ee27460b473ff175d1d273460","name":"Harry Kettle","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/harry-kettle\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}