Robert Whittaker is making his light heavyweight debut 12 years after making his Middleweight debut. What's crazy here is Robert was welterweight from 2009 to 2014, then he moved to middleweight in the back half of 2014 and now here he is as a light heavyweight. But he isn't that big. He wasn't even a big welterweight. Go watch his fight vs Wonderboy, Wonderboy was clearly the bigger fighter. But fine, he cut a bunch of weight and felt more comfortable at 185 which clearly worked out for him. But moving to Light Heavy is a bizare move to me. I can't point to a single fight that he lost because he looked sucked out and faded. But I can point to a fight, including his literal last one, where he lost because he was undersized. But even though I don't think he should be a light heavyweight, I do think he wins here. Nikita is actually a pretty big dude, but he doesn't fight like a bully. Robert should be faster and better everywhere. I expect his distance management and then famous rush in combination to get it done. Not sure we see a finish and I do expect him to defend a bunch of takedowns, but this is definitely a favorable 205lb debut for him.

Robert Whittaker

Robert Whittaker is a former welterweight who then became the middleweight champion of the world. He is a diverse striker with solid volume and very good takedowns. He is constantly mixing up his striking and movement patterns. He will lay out really heavy leg kicks and then immediately charge forward and chase the head. His only losses since 2014 are to 3 world champions and RDR. He has 12 takedowns in his last 9 fights to cement himself as one of the most well rounded guys in the UFC. He is coming off the war with RDR where the takedown defense was solid and he had a knockdown.

Nikita Krylov

Nikita Krylov is a well rounded guy with very good wrestling and striking. He has nice forward pressure and mixes his striking with grappling very well. He has solid takedowns and averages more than 2 per fight. He has a wealth of experience with some high level wins, but a sub par chin. He is coming off finish win over Modestas Baukaskas where there was only 3 seconds left on the clock.