Robert Whittaker has lately been involved in many activities outside the Octagon. From broadcasting to several other side gigs, he has surely been enjoying his time away. But now, he feels he needs to come back and showcase his prowess in the octagon again.

‘The Reaper’ fought Reinier de Ridder in his last appearance at UFC Abu Dhabi last year. The fight saw him struggling to counter the Dutchman’s grappling prowess as he ultimately lost via split decision. Now, almost six months after that bout, Whittaker reflects on his time away from the cage as he envisions returning soon.

Robert Whittaker talks about his return timeline

“After my last fight, I was talking with my family and stuff and I wanted to take some time to just separate myself from the game a little bit,” said Robert Whittaker during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. “The last couple of camps haven’t been super fun, so I’ve just been trying to bring that back into the game and just focus on some things because I don’t want to focus on other things such as the gym and everything else and broadcasting and stuff while in camp.”

And lastly, revealing his return timeline, Whittaker said, “I’m coming back in June. That’s just the date. Like I said, I don’t want to split attention between the craft, the fighting, my next fight and broadcasting and traveling and stuff. I want to lock in.”

Before losing to de Ridder, ‘The Reaper’ also fell short against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308. That bout saw Whittaker getting finished in the opening round of the fight, and following that, a loss against de Ridder surely put him away from the middleweight title picture.

As he now sets his eyes to make a return in June, Whittaker will look to put out a major turnaround in his career. But with that, he is also eyeing a significant change.

Whittaker targets new division

Robert Whittaker is surely one of the legends in the UFC middleweight division. While he has been regarded as “too small” for the 185 division, Whittaker believes otherwise. With him currently weighing around 235 pounds, he now wants to take it up a notch as he eyes a fight in the light heavyweight division.

“I think it’s time for a change,” said Whittaker while discussing with Ariel Helwani. “The [light heavyweight] division is open. I feel like there are some good fights to be had. There’s a lot of guys that I can — my skill set can prevail on. But like I said, wait and see. We’re going to have some conversations with some people this week and lock things in after.”

With the division currently stacked with title contenders like Carlos Ulberg and Jiri Procházka, and champion Alex Pereira eyeing a move to the heavyweight division, Whittaker will need some wins in the division to find a way to the title.

While Whittaker has stated his wish to fight in the light heavyweight division, he hasn’t particularly called out any names. Amid that, the official decision about his next fight is yet to be made by the UFC. On that note, do you think Whittaker will do well in the 205-pound division? Let us know in the comments below!