Australian veteran Robert Whittaker has earned a career-first victory at light heavyweight with a bone-crunching series of hits against Nikita Krylov at UFC 329.
Slow start but explosive finish
Fighting for the first time in nearly a year, Whittaker appeared off the pace early as he came to grips with stepping up from a stellar middleweight career. But he piled on the pressure and a combination late in the second round rocked Krylov, who called time after copping a right-hand to the face in the third.
Commentators react to the damage
“Robert comes in with the hammer. Boom. He steps back and immediately recognises something’s very wrong with his jaw,” Joe Rogan said in commentary. Daniel Cormier put it simply: “That’s nasty.” “(Krylov) immediately reacts here like my jaw is broken,” he said. “You can see his neck. When your chin goes to the other side, it hits your shoulder, you’re in trouble, man. That is not good.”
Whittaker's new home
Whittaker conceded he had “a lot of nerves” moving up to light heavyweight but, buoyed by the victory, said “this is my home now”. “Bobby’s still got it by the looks of things,” he said. “I trained for the entire camp with the idea my opponent’s going to be the boogeyman that every touch would kill me ... I hit as hard as anybody else.”
UFC 329 context
Whittaker’s fight closed the preliminary card at UFC 329, headlined by Conor McGregor’s return after five years out.
