Robert Whittaker Wants a Name at 205 — Jan Blachowicz Raises His Hand

Robert Whittaker only needed one fight to matter at light heavyweight. The former middleweight champion finished Nikita Krylov in the third round at UFC 329 in July, and that debut win immediately parked him inside the 205-pound rankings. Now he's shopping for a big name — and a former champion has already stuck his hand up.

Speaking on the Believe You Me podcast, Whittaker rattled off a wishlist: Magomed Ankalaev sits at the top of it, and he said he'd have loved a crack at Jan Blachowicz too, before noting Blachowicz just took a loss. He mentioned Bogdan Guskov as another option and waved off the recurring Paulo Costa suggestion — he's already beaten Costa. The message was simple: point him at anyone with a ranking beside their name.

The Teammate Problem

There's one firm line Whittaker won't cross. He said he won't fight his training partners, Carlos Ulberg and Navajo Stirling. If the three of them ever stack up as the top contenders, Whittaker joked they'd sit down and figure out how to all get paid — but until then, they're off the table.

That matters more than it sounds. Ulberg is the reigning light heavyweight champion, sitting at 15-1 (10 KO, 1 SUB) after stopping Jiří Procházka with a first-round KO, but he's shelved for now with a leg injury. Stirling, meanwhile, just knocked out Blachowicz at UFC Belgrade over the weekend. So Whittaker's two most obvious in-house rivals are both unavailable to him for very different reasons.

Blachowicz Answers Anyway

Here's the twist: the man Stirling just flattened wants Whittaker next. On Thursday, Blachowicz posted a callout of "Bobby Knuckles" to social media — a quick pivot from getting stopped to hunting a name that would reset his stock in one night.

For Whittaker, the appeal of the move is obvious. He said he's genuinely enjoying the climb, treating the rank-and-file grind through a fresh division as a new chapter after years operating near the top at 185. He still reckons he's got work to do to earn a title shot at his new weight. A fight with a former champ like Blachowicz would fast-track that conversation — even coming off a knockout loss, the Pole carries the kind of name Whittaker keeps asking for.