Whiteford back in the ring after costly poke in eye
Fighter left frustrated and disillusioned after gouging
I was disgusted, it was an absolute joke. The referee made a huge blunder and nobody was held accountable. They just get away with it
MIXED martial artists have pain thresholds the rest of us can scarcely imagine but it was being poked in the eye that finally broke Robert Whiteford.
The Glaswegian was well on top in his first post-Covid outing against Andrew Fisher last October only to be gouged up to six times by his English opponent.
MMA can be a brutal, unforgiving form of combat but going for the eyes is very much verboten, as the Bellator organisers had made clear ahead of that night in London’s Wembley Arena.
To add to Whiteford’s discomfort, the referee deemed Fisher’s regular ocular intrusions to be all accidental, declaring it a no contest.
That meant the Scot took only half a pay packet home and denied him the post-fight media platform – traditionally afforded only to the winners – to articulate his frustration.
The 39-year-old is in good enough shape to keep competing for a few more years yet but a situation like that can be more emotionally sapping than any defeat.
“I wouldn’t say it was an unfortunate incident as the only person who lost out was me,” declared the former UFC fighter. “I only got half my wages.
“When you look at who was winning the fight, how it was going and then the referee saying he was going to take two points off the guy, then you do wonder about it all.
“He lost the first round, he was losing the second round and then lost two points so the only person who benefited from it being stopped was him.
“The referee worded it wrong by saying it was accidental. But six times isn’t accidental is it? He poked me six times in the eye and three times they had to stop the fight because it was that serious.
“Once you can maybe let him off. Two? We’re getting there. And then there was a third one where it was stopped. So how can that be classed all as accidental?
“When we had the fighters’ meeting beforehand the commissioner sat us down for 20 minutes and told us that there could be no deliberate eye pokes and that was the only warning we were going to get. But that clearly had no effect.
“My manager went back and forth with Bellator after the fight to make the case but they just fobbed him off because they didn’t want to pay out. They only had to pay show money rather than a win bonus.
“I was disgusted with it to be honest, it was an absolute joke. The referee made a huge blunder and nobody was held accountable. They just get away with it.
“That doesn’t seem to be fair to me. I’m pretty p ***** off. The only time the media are interested in you right after the fight is if you win. So if you lose or it’s a no contest nobody wants to speak to you. So I didn’t get the chance to voice my opinion about what had happened. And Bellator were happy to just push it under the carpet.”
Whiteford at least now has the chance to get that out of his system when he returns on Friday for Bellator 281 against the experienced Daniel Weichel.
He compares the stomachchurning feeling the closer a fight gets to being back at school.
“You change as soon as a fight gets announced,” he adds. “I’ve tried to explain that to my girlfriend as I’m not as happy and my spirits aren’t as high when I’m in fight mode. Your mind goes to a different place.
“If anyone has ever been in a fight at school, it’s when they say to you in the morning, ‘at lunchtime you’re fighting this guy’ and it was all you could think about. You weren’t listening to what any of the teachers were saying.
“So this has been in my mind for four months when the fight was announced. It’s that same anxiety and butterflies as you had at school.
“Even after all those years of being involved in MMA it’s the same. You want to get it over and done with and get the job done.”
Preparation for the fight has also meant less time for Whiteford around his young son, Blake.
“My boy just had his first birthday so training for this fight has taken me away from being a dad for a while.
“I’ve been going back and forth to London for training so I’m looking forward to going back to being a proper dad again. He doesn’t sit at peace! He’s been walking since he was eight months so it’s about trying to keep an eye on him at all times. But it’s brilliant being around him. Hopefully I can win this fight and then we can go back to celebrate together.”