Robert John Whittaker (born 20 December 1990) is an Australian professional mixed martial artist.

[11] A professional MMA competitor since 2009, Whittaker was a contestant on the first series of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes and won the welterweight tournament.

[15][16] Moving to Australia shortly after, Whittaker's father enrolled Robert, aged seven, and his brother in a Goju-ryu karate school, to encourage them in self-discipline and self-defence.

[17][18] After training in the discipline for around eight years, and earning his black belt, his father offered him the chance to change to another sport or drop karate entirely.

While his brother decided to drop out, Robert chose to switch to a hapkido[19] gym run by Henry Perez, following his move to Menai.

[18] Whittaker was a talented rugby league player in his younger years and was placed in the development academy of the professional Cronulla Sharks club as a youth.

[23] Whittaker continued his career with Cage Fighting Championships, going 6–0 inside the promotion from 2009 to 2011, with a notable win over fellow TUF: Smashes cast member, Ben Alloway.

Whittaker landed a punch flush on the chin of Newman after 19 seconds, knocking him unconscious for several minutes.

[28] In the semi-final, Whittaker was matched against replacement fighter and fellow Team Australia teammate, Xavier Lucas.

The win moved Whittaker into the final round of the competition, which would take place live on UFC on FX: Sotiropoulos vs.

[57] Whittaker fought for the interim middleweight title against Yoel Romero on 8 July 2017 at UFC 213, after Michael Bisping announced a nagging knee injury which would go on to keep him on the sidelines for several months.

[58] Whittaker won by unanimous decision, and became the first Australian and first New Zealand born fighter to hold a UFC title.

[63] He was slated for his first title defence at UFC 221 against former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold on 10 February 2018 at Perth Arena in Australia.

[64][65] On 13 January 2018, it was reported that Whittaker had pulled out of the event due to an undisclosed injury and would be replaced by Yoel Romero for the interim middleweight championship.

[66] On 20 January 2018, Dana White confirmed that Whittaker was in a serious condition after he was not properly treated from a staph infection in his stomach.

[68] At the weigh-ins, Romero missed weight, coming in at 186 lbs, 1 pound over the middleweight limit for a title fight.

[71] In July 2018, the UFC announced that Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum had been selected as coaches for Ultimate Fighter 28.

[72] On 2 November 2018, it was announced that Whittaker's next middleweight title defence would be against Kelvin Gastelum, in February at UFC 234.

[73] However, Whittaker pulled out of the event a few hours beforehand after he was forced to undergo emergency dual surgery immediately, due to an abdominal hernia of the intestine and a twisted and collapsed bowel.

[78] In late April 2020, Whittaker revealed in an interview that he withdrew from the bout and training altogether due to burnout.

[99] After surviving a head kick at the end of the first round, Whittaker rebounded and won the bout by unanimous decision.

[106] Whittaker began competing in freestyle wrestling in 2015, when he unexpectedly entered the Australia Cup in Canberra.

[109] After winning the national championship, Whittaker entered Australia's 2018 Commonwealth Games 97 kg qualifying tournament in November 2017.

He would once again claim first place in his division and in doing so qualified to represent Australia in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast,[110][111] the city in which he made his UFC debut.

Following his qualification, Whittaker made it clear he would only compete in the Commonwealth Games if the event did not interfere with his UFC commitments.

[112] It was confirmed in March 2018 that Whittaker would be one of eight Australians to compete in the Commonwealth Games wrestling competition in April 2018.

[132] Whittaker once stated in an interview, "Pretty much all my mother's side is Kiwi and we have a strong Maori heritage."

Through this community service, he hopes to inspire the younger generation to take up combat sports by being a good role model to them.