Wrestler up off the mat
UFC champion Rob Whittaker’s Commonwealth Games loss is Nick Verreynne’s gain, with the Canberra wrestler receiving an 11th-hour call-up to the Australian team.
Verreynne, 25, had initially missed selection but Whittaker’s withdrawal less than three weeks before the Gold Coast event has opened the door for his Games debut.
UFC middleweight champion Whittaker quit the team late last week after confirmation he would make his first title defence against Cuban Yoel Romero in June in Chicago.
The “gutted” 27-year-old was told he stood to be stripped of his belt if he was injured competing in his secondary sport at the Games.
The late call left Wrestling Australia one athlete short after the entry submission cutoff date, and the organisation was anxiously awaiting approval from the Commonwealth Games Federation to draft in a replacement.
Wrestling Australia received the letter of approval yesterday morning, meaning Verreynne would contest the 97kg category in which he placed second to Whittaker at November’s selection event.
Whittaker withdrew from the Australian team after he was told he would be stripped of his middleweight title if injured competing.
“The UFC weren’t comfortable with me competing, especially so close to a headliner,” the 27-year-old Sydneysider said.
“There is a lot on the line for them – and for me.”
Quizzed on the ramifications had he competed at the Games and been injured, Whittaker said: “The UFC said they would strip me.
“There were just too many risks for me competing.
“Obviously, I’d initially planned to defend my title in Perth, then go to the Commonwealth Games after that. But once I got sick, everything was changed around.”
Whittaker has already been sidelined for a year – with a knee injury then illness – and says he is keen to get back into the Octagon against Romero in June.