Injured Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker Releases Statement From Hospital Following UFC 234 Withdrawal

UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, who was supposed to defend his belt at UFC 234 this past weekend but had to withdraw due to injury, has released a video statement from the hospital. 

In a trio of videos posted to Instagram, Whittaker offered fans a little insight into what went down the day of UFC 234. He revealed he was diagnosed with a collapsed bowel and internal hernia just hours before his fight on Saturday night. He was unable to drink water or eat anything after weighing in the day prior and was throwing up everything he ingested while attempting to rehydrate. It was then that his family and teammates encouraged him to go to the hospital.

Despite attempts to convince doctors to let him defend his title against Kelvin Gastelum, the risk was too much. Ultimately, the fight was called off and in the video below, Whittaker apologizes to Gastelum and UFC fans who were looking forward to the fight.

View this post on Instagram

Hey guys ! Still kicking. I'm sorry to all my friends, fans and family for not being able to get in there Sunday. Apparently if you get emergency surgeries you can't be cleared to fight. Thanks for the overwhelming support from all my fans I am so blessed to know you guys have my back. A big thanks to my team mates @fabricioitte @alexprates07 @standstrongboxingcoachjustin @justinlang_ep @titusday77 and all the others from behind the scenes you guys were there from start to finish worrying and prioritizing my health above all. Lastly to @danawhite and @ufc for the immediate help and support throughout the process of testing and the emergency surgeries. I am blessed I found out when I did and avoided life long consequences. I'll be back better than ever.

A post shared by Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) on Feb 10, 2019 at 7:01pm PST

Whittaker is currently recovering from emergency surgery and vows to return "better than ever." Anderson Silva's middleweight bout with Israel Adesanya was upgraded to the main event of UFC 234 and proved to be every bit as entertaining.