Khamzat Chimaev is ‘just another man’ and I’m going to take the fight right to him at UFC 308, says Robert Whittaker

ROBERT WHITTAKER insists Khamzat Chimaev isn’t the boogeyman everyone thinks he is.

The Russian has run roughshod in the UFC since debuting on Fight Island in July 2020, with no one coming close to handing him his first professional loss.

The 30-year-old’s ferocious fighting style and James Bond villain-esque persona have made him a firm favourite with fans and made fellow welter and middleweights hesitant to share the octagon with him.

But the Chechen clubber doesn’t intimidate former 185lbs champion Whittaker – whom he’ll throw down with in the co-main event of UFC 308 on October 26 – in the slightest.

In an exclusive interview with SunSport, Whittaker said: “I think they believe and they read too much into the hype.

“[And] into the rumours and into everything else. At the end of the day, he’s just another man.

“He’s just another guy who is the best in his gym, right?”

Unlike many MMA fans, Whittaker isn’t putting too much stock into the fact that Chimaev has yet to taste defeat as a professional.

“Mate,” he bluntly said. “Everyone has been undefeated at some point in their career, right?

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“He’s not the first man that I’ve fought who is undefeated.”

Whittaker’s insistence that Chimaev is a mere mortal, however, doesn’t mean he thinks he has an easy task on his hands in their Abu Dhabi dust-up.

But the Australian doesn’t see the fan favourite as the toughest test of his career

“I think it’s the most pressing test right now,” he said. “Because. it’s a story left untold.

“It’s the unknown that’s worrisome and that gives this fight so much gravity.

“But I’ve had tests my entire career. I’ve had hard fights. I’ve had hard wins and I’ve had hard losses.

“But, yeah, this is what I do. I’m built for this and I was made to do this.

“And I’m gonna treat this fight like any other and get in there and just switch on and get to work.”

Defeats to current and former middleweight champions Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya either side of a win over Marvin Vettori left many wondering if Whittaker is a spent force in the division.

But he’s emphatically shut down that narrative this year with a decision win over former title challenger Paulo Costa and a demolition job of Ikram Aliskerov.

Whittaker’s first-round KO of the previously undefeated Aliskerov in June was very much his “Y’all Must’ve Forgot” moment.

And he has a message for those who believe he’s the proverbial lamb to the slaughter against Chimaev.

“You can’t sleep on me, man,” Whittaker said. “I’ve gone nowhere. I’ve fought only the best in the world.”

He added: “I’m gonna take the fight to him from the first second until the last second.”