{"id":39204,"date":"2026-07-09T01:46:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Nikita-Krylov-predicts-Robert-Whittakers-light-heavyweight-move-will-fail-201816"},"modified":"2026-07-09T01:46:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:46:46","slug":"nikita-krylov-predicts-robert-whittakers-light-heavyweight-move-will-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/nikita-krylov-predicts-robert-whittakers-light-heavyweight-move-will-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Krylov predicts Robert Whittaker’s light heavyweight move will fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n
<\/center>\n<\/div>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

\nNikita Krylov would like to be the wrench in a former\u2019s champ\u2019s
\nplans at 205 pounds. | \ud83d\udcf7: Getty\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n


\nNikita
\nKrylov<\/a> wants to play spoiler for Robert
\nWhittaker<\/a>\u2019s light heavyweight move.<\/p>\n

Whittaker (26-9) is set to make his light heavyweight debut in the
\n
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> against Krylov (31-11) at
\n
\nUFC 329<\/a> on Saturday, July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las
\nVegas.<\/p>\n

Krylov believes Whittaker envisions a light heavyweight move like
\nAlex
\nPereira<\/a>, who went on to win the title at 205 pounds. However,
\nthe Ukrainian-born Russian fighter has claimed that the former
\nmiddleweight champion\u2019s move up is more likely to end up like
\nIsrael
\nAdesanya<\/a>‘s or Chris
\nWeidman<\/a>\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Nikita Krylov says Robert Whittaker’s light heavyweight move
\nmirrors Israel Adesanya<\/h2>\n

Adesanya only fought once at light heavyweight, losing his title
\nbid to then-champion Jan
\nBlachowicz<\/a> in 2021. Weidman had also moved back to middleweight
\nafter being thwarted at light heavyweight by Dominick
\nReyes<\/a> in 2019. Krylov hopes to send Whittaker back to 185
\npounds in a similar fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like he wants to move up like Alex
\nPereira<\/a>. But I think it may end up the way it did in Adesanya\u2019s
\ncase,\u201d Krylov told Red Corner MMA. \u201cJan Blachowicz beat Israel
\nAdesanya; Dominick Reyes beat Chris Weidman; I\u2019d like to see
\nsomething similar for Robert as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittaker never reclaimed his middleweight title after losing it to
\nAdesanya in 2019. The Australian is moving up to light heavyweight
\non the back of consecutive losses to Khamzat
\nChimaev<\/a> and Reinier
\nde Ridder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Krylov has gone 6-6 in the UFC since making his Octagon
\ndebut in 2018. He is coming off a stoppage win over Modestas
\nBukauskas<\/a>, rebounding from back-to-back losses to Reyes and
\nBogdan
\nGuskov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Nikita
\nKrylov<\/a> believes Robert
\nWhittaker<\/a> could face the same challenges other former
\nmiddleweights have faced after moving up in weight ahead of their
\nclash at #UFC329<\/a>
\nin Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like he wants to move up like Alex
\nPereira<\/a>. But I think it may end up the way it did in\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/p3fzWBRlH4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nJuly 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nikita Krylov would like to be the wrench in a former\u2019s champ\u2019s plans at 205 pounds. | \ud83d\udcf7: Getty\/UFC Nikita Krylov wants to play spoiler for Robert Whittaker\u2019s light heavyweight move. Whittaker (26-9) is set to make his light heavyweight debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship against Krylov (31-11) at UFC 329 on Saturday, July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}