Why did Robert Whittaker move up to light heavyweight?

Robert Whittaker told Joe Rogan that he no longer enjoyed his final middleweight camps or his last fight at 185 pounds. The diet, the cut and the fatigue wore him down while he was trying to look after six children. At light heavyweight he can eat carbohydrates and fuel his training, so his body felt stronger and his camps became enjoyable again. He added that almost every middleweight he fought was already taller than him, so moving up changed less than people assumed.

• Whittaker said it upset him that none of his suits fitted at his natural weight, because he is always fitted when lean.
• Whittaker named Israel Adesanya, Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev as middleweights who stood around 6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 4 inches.
• Whittaker said he went into his light heavyweight debut coming off two losses and fighting a lot of nerves.

▸In their words

“end of my career, I'm going to have no clothes.” Robert Whittaker · at 1:51:12 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Joe Rogan Experience (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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