Paul Gallen vs Robert Whittaker: UFC star’s camp keen to make fight happen, possible dates, purse, latest news
Robert Whittaker’s camp is keen to make a struggle with Paul Gallen transpire early up coming yr soon after the NRL excellent named out Australia’s first UFC winner times soon after beating Mark Hunt.
Gallen upset Hunt by unanimous selection on Wednesday evening but saved some of his most devastating photographs for soon after the bout in which he twice named out Whittaker, both in the ring and the post-struggle press meeting.
The previous Cronulla Sharks star revealed he’d been fired up by Whittaker’s response when a achievable bout was first talked about a yr back.
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“He laughed, in a way that annoyed me,” Gallen mentioned referring to Whittaker’s reviews about the league legend on a podcast last yr.
“I assumed ‘stuff you, you condescending pr**k, you know? I’ll struggle ya.”
And it looks the bout is considerably from a pipe aspiration, with Whittaker’s crew legitimately keen to make it transpire — perhaps even just before he returns to the Octagon for a probably UFC title struggle in early 2021.
“We’re definitely (keen),” Whittaker’s supervisor Titus Working day informed foxsports.com.au on Thursday.
“There’s a ton of going pieces. There’d have to be acceptance from the UFC and the timing would have to operate, but I think it’d be a excellent struggle for absolutely sure.
“… I think (Gallen would) be a fantastic opponent. In an MMA struggle he’d possibly last about three seconds but in a boxing match — Rob’s a incredibly competent boxer — but Gallen, he’s tricky. I think it’d be a fantastic, difficult struggle and incredibly fascinating.”
Referring to experiences Whittaker would demand as substantially as $1.five million for the struggle — thought to be double Hunt’s purse — Gallen urged the UFC star to “stop pricing yourself out of it”.
Working day mentioned whilst preliminary talks with promoter Matt Rose experienced not covered funds, “that sort of dollars is not considerably off the mark for sure”.
“Rob is the biggest title in beat sports in this region by a mile. The last struggle he did in Australia he packed out a stadium,” Working day mentioned of Whittaker, who became Australia’s first UFC winner in 2017.
“He’s a big star and he’d be stepping out of his ease and comfort zone for this so it’d have to be worthwhile, that’s for absolutely sure.”
Even though there was just about 20kg change amongst Gallen (103kg) and Whittaker (84kg) in their last struggle weigh-ins respectively, Working day mentioned it was a practical matchup.
“Rob walks all around normal at about 100kg, so it’s not that considerably off — he cuts a ton of excess weight for MMA but it’s various for boxing. He just wouldn’t lower excess weight for this and they’d be a equivalent dimension.”
Whittaker is nonetheless awaiting information from the UFC on his up coming struggle soon after defeating Jared Cannonier in October but a title struggle of some sort is in the offing.
“Rob will have to operate inside UFC timelines – that’s his main precedence naturally,” Working day mentioned, “But if we could operate a boxing match with Gallen in just before or soon after his up coming struggle, we’d a hundred for every cent do that.”
