Robert Whittaker has officially written off Brazilian fighter Paulo Costa as a possible opponent after Costa pulled out of their scheduled fights for the second time, most recently at UFC 284 in Perth. Whittaker was very upset with Costa’s actions and does not want to waste his time, money, and energy preparing for an opponent who isn’t committed to showing up.

Another fighter who doesn’t interest Whittaker is Khamzat Chimaev, who is not in the division rankings and hasn’t earned his way up like other top-five fighters. Whittaker believes that these top-ranked fighters are the best of the best and that working his way up to fight them is much more difficult than just sliding in at the top, as Chimaev seems to be trying to do.

Whittaker’s fight for the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya has been complicated. Whittaker has already lost twice to Adesanya, and he was hoping that Adesanya would fight Alex Pereira next, so Whittaker would be next in line to fight for the title. But after Adesanya knocked out Pereira to secure the belt, Whittaker’s position got worse.

As Pereira has since vacated the middleweight division to move up to light heavyweight, a possible fifth fight between Adesanya and Pereira is off the table, but that still doesn’t necessarily open the door for Whittaker.

While the integrity of the UFC’s rankings has been questioned by many, Whittaker still believes they should be respected, as they show who has worked their way up to the top. Whittaker has fought and beaten many contenders to get where he is and hopes to fight for the title again.

Whittaker understands that it’s unlikely he’ll get a third chance to fight against Adesanya, but he’s willing to work his way up, beat other contenders, and ruin other fighters’ days if he has to, to get another shot. Whittaker believes he can beat Adesanya in three fights, as opposed to the four it took Adesanya to beat Pereira.