UFC Hall of Famer Put on Blast for Sharing Injury Photo After Ex-Champion's Ugly Loss

Originally posted on MMA on SI | By Drew Beaupre | Last updated Jan 23, 2025 10:45 AM ET

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A former UFC middleweight champion was not happy with what one of the promotion’s commentators decided to do following his first-round loss at UFC 308.

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Taking place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE back in October, UFC 308 featured a headlining bout between defending UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway and a pivotal middleweight matchup between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev in the night's co-main event.

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Chimaev ended up submitting Whittaker in the first round with a brutal face crank, and while some fans initial questioned why “The Reaper” had tapped so quickly it became apparent after the fight that the former middleweight champion’s lower jaw had sustained some horrific damage.

An image of the injury quickly made the rounds on social media after the fight, and during a recent interview Robert Whittaker revealed how angry he was that UFC Hall of Famer and color commentator Daniel Cormier released the photo.

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“I was super annoyed [that Cormier shared the photo],” Whittaker told Ariel Helwani. “It’s such a scummy thing to do. It’s like – the doctor took a photo of my mouth, right? And said ‘I’m just gonna go show Dana [White], so that he knows what’s up. On the level, Dana and Hunter [Campbell].’ I’m like ‘Cool, do that.’ And then DC took a photo off the other guy’s phone to post all over socials. It’s like – is that not scummy?”

"People Thought I Was Dead"

Whittaker’s injury from the Chimaev fight was one of the more gruesome images to come out of a UFC event in recent memory, and “The Reaper” went on to reveal that the explosion of the photo on social media meant he didn’t have time to update fans on his status.

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“I don’t care that much, but it’s just, it looked – I wanna say it looked worse than it did. Most people would say, 'It kind of looked really bad', right? The thing is though, because it was posting all over the place, I was getting like condolence messages. Like people thought I was dead, dude. I didn’t – I would have liked to control the reaction a little better. But, it is what it is. What are you gonna do? You just roll with the punches.”

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The 34-year-old revealed on his MMArcade Podcast in November that he actually had a procedure to remove some of his bottom teeth following the Chimaev loss, but Whittaker did note that those particular teeth had “always been crap” and that his “life is better without them”.

“The Reaper” was on a two-fight win streak prior to his loss at UFC 308, and even after being submitted by the undefeated Chimaev he still currently holds a #4-ranking in the UFC middleweight division and will likely be watching the upcoming UFC 305 rematch between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland with great interest.