'It means nothing': Why UFC title left Robert Whittaker unfulfilled
Robert Whittaker knows the title isn't what makes him a champion, after a life that has taken him from housing commissions to glory in the UFC.
Robert Whittaker for PlayersVoice
I was born in New Zealand, in Auckland. My family is on the North Island. We come from the Ngāpuhi. My mother's side is of Māori background and I'm very proud of my heritage.
The Māori culture is a warrior race. I definitely acknowledge that a lot of my strength comes from there. One of my goals is to try and get back there and really immerse myself in the culture, find out more about my background, my roots, and my grandparents and their grandparents, and just to work out my family tree and where I came from.
Almost immediately after my birth, I was brought here to Sydney and completely raised here in Sydney.
When I was about seven, me and my brother both started karate. My Dad and Mom wanted to put us into karate for self-defence. My mother's side always did boxing, my father did Taekwondo and was in the army, so they both knew the value of self-defence.
Once my parents split up and me and my father and my brother moved to Menai, I continued doing karate for a number of years until we got our black belts. My father gave us a choice, to either quit martial arts then and there or he'd put us into something else.
I did have hapkido and jiu-jitsu, they were kind of the first two I studied that were different to karate and I loved it. It was great.
I've been a housing commission kid my whole life and didn't need a lot of money. I just made sure I didn't mix with the wrong crowd. My father was very good in that way. He always directed me the right way, giving me good advice when I needed it and a stern hand when I needed it.
I just stuck to my sports. I did what I was good at and kept my head down, didn't get in trouble, and I became a world champion. It's not impossible.
My parents sacrificed everything for me. More or less they didn't have a life while they were raising us. They did what they needed to do, they sacrificed everything that they had to do to raise us kids right. I guess that is still to me the main trait, that I'll give anything to my family. That's kind of made me the man I am today.
I guess the one thing that I'm going to pass onto my kids is if you work hard and keep your head down, you can accomplish great things. You don't need to be champion, but you can accomplish great things.
How it feels as champion is not as good as I thought it'd be. I thought there'd be more fanfare. You know, maybe trumpets. Being champion is nothing. It means nothing. It's just they gave me a shiny belt and then everyone wants to take my head off now, so it's cool.
I'm very proud of who I am today though. I'm very proud of the calibre of fighter that I am. I'm proud of my achievements and I'm proud of the road that I'm walking. I think that's much, much more important than being a champion because you can be a champion without the belt.