Robert Whittaker Gym, Coach, and Teammates: Where Does the UFC Star Train?

Robert Whittaker has amassed 26 phenomenal victories in his professional MMA career. And 15 of those came via finishing moves, with 7 in the very first round. Needless to say, Whittaker’s BJJ, Gojuryu Karate, and Hapkido played a major role in getting him the wins. This has intrigued many fight fans and made them wonder about the former middleweight champion’s training center. 

Today, let’s take a look and learn more about Whittaker’s gym, his coach, and all we know about how ‘The Reaper’ prepares for his fights! After all, it’s the teammates and coaches that build a fighter, don’t you think?

What gym does Robert Whittaker train at? Who are his coaches?

Born in Otahuhu, Auckland in New Zealand, Robert Whittaker’s family moved to Australia shortly after his birth. It was here that his journey in marital arts began when his father enrolled him and his brother in a karate school when he was just 7 years old.

After 8 years of training and earning his black belt in Goju-ryu karate, Whittaker then enrolled in a hapkido gym which was later transformed into an MMA gym by the coach, Henry Perez. This led to ‘The Reaper’ falling in love with MMA and in 2008, he made his debut in the sport when he signed with ‘Xtreme Fighting Championships’ in Australia.  

According to the information available on Tapology, Whittaker currently trains out of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Smeaton Grange gym in New South Wales, Australia. His grappling coach at the gym is Alex Prates, and according to an update from Whittaker’s Instagram, Brian Doyle handles the boxing coach duties for ‘The Reaper’. In the past, Whittaker has also trained with the ‘Tristar Gym’ in Canada from 2013-14 under coach Firas Zahabi, most notable for producing fighters like Georges St. Pierre, Rory MacDonald, Arnold Allen, and more.

Also, Robert Whittaker holds a black belt in BJJ under his teacher, Alex Prates. In a post shared on his Instagram account in 2020, ‘The Reaper’ revealed that he had been training in gi jiu-jitsu for 16 years at that point. The caption for the update stated, “Honoured to be handed my black belt from my coach and friend @alexprates07. Started Gi 16 years ago and I’m stoked to have hit this milestone in my career. Lookout world. If you’re in so much as a long sleeve shirt. Danger.”

Now, let’s move over to check out who Robert Whittaker trains with. After all, it’s the training partners who ensure the fighters get the pump that they need.

Robert Whittaker’s teammates and training partners

Teammates are as important as coaches because it’s help fighters grow and evolve into an exceptional level of expertise. When it comes to Robert Whittaker, he’s got quite a stacked and experienced bunch of teammates. His teammates in the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Smeaton Grange gym include fellow UFC middleweight Jacob Malkoun, who is also an ADCC Asia Trials Winner from 2019, ‘Dynamite’ David Francis, and Isi ‘Doxz’ Fitikefu.

Out of the three aforementioned teammates, only Jacob Malkoun competes in the UFC. But did you know Robert Whittaker once agreed to train with his upcoming opponent, Khamzat Chimaev? In 2022, ‘Boz’ men expressed wanting to train with ‘The Reaper’ and beat “bad guys,” which was responded to with open arms from the latter.

“Yeah, I heard what Khamzat [Chimaev] said about wanting to fight bad guys. I can get behind that. If he wants to train together, I want to train together and we can go hunt bad guys together, you know. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. And I think we can run amok on a lot of people,” Robert Whittaker stated during an interview on ‘MMA on SiriusXM’. Well, that never happened.

Nevertheless, ‘Bobby Knuckles’ is all set to fight the Chechen Wolf at the co-main event for UFC 308. Their previous fight scheduled for UFC Riyadh never really materialized. Chimaev had to pull out of the game just a couple of days before the matchup because of his illness. But that doesn’t matter anymore. Whittaker has one more chance at proving himself against Chimaev and settling the scores with him.

As Whittaker navigates the path to October 26, his team’s guidance and adaptability will play a crucial part in the fight. The fans will be hoping that the former 185-pound king can secure a win and continue his journey towards reclaiming his throne!