Home

Boxing

MMA News Round-Up: Robert Whittaker Responds to Khamzat Chimaev, Dana White Slams Boxing, Health Scare for Dan Hooker & Nathaniel Wood

Published 02/09/2023, 8:45 AM EST

Follow Us

via Getty

In the past few hours, there have been a lot of developments in the world of MMA. The presentation of interesting opinions, a few disheartening injuries, and a lot more will be included in this edition of the MMA news roundup. The UFC supremo, Dana White, spoke about boxing promoters failing to make superb matchups like the UFC 284 main event. Also, the noted UFC fighters, Dan Hooker and Nathaniel Wood, revealed that they had sustained significant injuries. Lastly, the famed UFC Middleweight, Robert Whittaker expressed his take on the callout that he had received from his fellow UFC Welterweight, Khamzat Chimaev.

Dana White bashed boxing authorities due to their lackluster matchmaking

The UFC boss, Dana White, recently gave his opinion on how the UFC did a lot better in terms of matchmaking than various boxing authorities across the world. White visited the ‘Vegas Sports Talk Uncensored Podcasts’ as a guest. There, he talked about how the UFC excelled in setting up enthralling bouts. He was asked about UFC 284 main event to be featuring Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski, and the UFC’s stance on organizing global events.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

via Imago

White mentioned, We’re always trying to cultivate new talent and always trying to find the best in the world.” The UFC boss has expressed pride in how the UFC had fixed a matchup between the “no.1 pound for pound in the world,” and “the no.2 pound for pound in the world, in the prime of their career.”

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest Boxing stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

He also criticized the sport of boxing, which he had once trained in. The UFC supremo stated, “This is something you never see in boxing. They can never make these fights, you know.”

Dan Hooker and Nathaniel Wood were sidelined from their upcoming bouts due to injuries

The noted UFC Lightweight, Dan Hooker, would be missing his UFC 285 bout against the famed Jalin Turner. Reportedly, Hooker suffered the injury while he was in a training session recently. The noted MMA coverage house, ‘MMA Junkie’ reported that the UFC was also probably scouting an opponent to replace Hooker as Turner‘s opponent at UFC 285.

The UFC Bantamweight, Nathaniel Wood, was subjected to a somewhat similar fate. The British had his right under-knee area part sliced open from a “wooden trim on the outside of the mats”.

Wood shared the snap of his terrible injury, which also had a lot of the fans worried. The gruesome injury won’t leave Wood able to compete against Lerone Murphy at UFC 286.

It was also reported that it would require regular medical supervision and quite some time to heal.

Robert Whittaker responds to Khamzat Chimaev’s callout

The noted UFC Middleweight, Robert Whittaker, recently gave out on the UFC Welterweight, Khamzat Chimaev, who had called him out for a faceoff. It’s pertinent to note that ‘Borz’, always a fan of challenges, intended to move up a division and challenge ‘The Reaper’. Chimaev used Instagram to make the callout.

Whittaker gave out his response to Chimaev recently as the Submission Radio podcast hosts joined him. ‘The Reaper’ mentioned, If it’s a fight that gets presented to me, it is what it is. I think it’ll be a good fight, I think it’ll be a hard fight. I think he is a phenomenal fighter”.

Whittaker also stated that they were pretty evenly matched.

Watch this Story – WATCH: Five Times Alex Pereira Mocked Rival Israel Adesanya Ahead of UFC 281

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

He said, “I think he has got a lot of strengths. I think I have a lot of strengths. I’m gonna be a hard fight for anyone.”

Some more MMA news

  • The noted former UFC Flyweight Champion, Demetrious Johnson, weighed down on Dana White‘s words post the then UFC Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou‘s exit. Johnson accused the UFC boss of lying.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

 

  • The noted UFC Heavyweight Ciryl Gane also had Francis Ngannou‘s back for his decision to quit the UFC.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Souvik Roy

1,315Articles

One take at a time

Souvik Roy is currently a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. An avid UFC follower, Souvik combined his love for the sport and his passion for words to turn his interest into his Livelihood. A Diploma holder in Electrical Engineering, Souvik has worked as a Freelance Link Builder and Content Writer previously and wrote for various clients and businesses.
Show More>

Edited by:

Vineet Nandwana