A few months ago I signed a petition to get Robert Whiteford into the UFC. The goal was to get him fighting Andy Ogle on the Manchester card and there was a bit of a buzz around the whole thing.
However, Ogle was matched against Cole Miller, set for UFC Fight Night 30 at the Phones 4U Arena next Saturday. Everything seemingly went quiet on the Whiteford to UFC campaign. That was until today.
As MMA Junkie first reported, Robert Whiteford will become the first Scot to ever fight in the UFC when he steps in to the world famous Octagon to go head-to-head with rising prospect Jimy ‘The Kid’ Hettes. Hettes (10-1) was originally scheduled to fight recent ‘TUF’ cast member Mike Wilkinson before an injury forced him out of the bout. The UFC stated they would seek an alternate for Jimy but the news of his new opponent was still somewhat of a shock.
Hettes has fought three times so far in the UFC, amassing a 2-1 record with wins over Nam Phan and Alex Caceres before suffering the first loss of his career to Marcus Brimage by unanimous decision back at UFC 152.
Meanwhile, Rab has racked up a very respectable 10-1 record on the UK circuit which has included wins over notables Paul Reed, Carl Fawcett and Antanas Jazbutis as well as a very impressive 43 second knockout of recent Cage Warriors featherweight championship challenger Martin Svensson.
MMA Plus hopes to bring you more on this big news soon.
Gregg Mullen
Photo: Dolly Clew | Cage Warriors
