Chael Sonnen believes Robert Whittaker deserves title shot against Alex Pereira after beating Paulo Costa by "forfeiture clause"

The highly anticipated middleweight matchup between Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa will not take place as scheduled at UFC 284 according to several reports earlier this week.

In light of this news, Chael Sonnen invoked the "forfeiture clause" to argue that Whittaker should be the next contender to challenge UFC middleweight champion, Alex Pereira.

Paulo Costa has stated numerous times in interviews and on social media since the announcement of the fight that a contract for the fight with Whittaker was never signed and that the fight would not take place. Disappointed with the turn of events, Whittaker confirmed the news in a video posted to social media, stating that he has been dropped from the card entirely and will be returning in March or April.

Chael Sonnen, recalling his days as a collegiate wrestler, argued that a forfeiting team or individual competitor would immediately lose the contest if they withdrew their name from the scheduled contest.

After 'Poatan' seemingly shot down talks of an instant rematch with Israel Adesanya, Sonnen argued that Robert Whittaker should be next in line to face Pereira for the championship.

Keeping all these factors in mind, Sonnen said:

"Robert Whittaker was willing to do it [fight vs. Costa] and didn't get it.... I who believes in a forfeiture clause, believe that Whittaker just won. I believe we now have our fight, it's Pereira vs. Whittaker. That's what I believe."

Sonnen added that if given the opportunity, Whittaker would jump on the opportunity to fight for the title again. 'The Reaper' might even be the favorite going into the fight with Alex Pereira, according to Sonnen:

"Whittaker isn't going to pounce on the opportunity. Whittaker is not going to do anything with this opportunity.... but if somebody does it for him, he would be willing to step in there and fight Alex.... And Robert Whittaker would be the favorite at DraftKings."

Catch Sonnen's comments below:

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Jared Cannonier willing to step in as a replacement to face Robert Whittaker

Paulo Costa's withdrawal from the UFC 284 pay-per-view event in Australia dashed Robert Whittaker's aspirations of competing on his home turf. To keep Whittaker's aspirations alive, though, top-ranked competitor Jared Cannonier has offered to step in as a replacement.

At UFC Vegas 66, Jared Cannonier returned to winning ways with a split-decision victory over Sean Strickland.

Fresh off a significant victory, Cannonier stated in a recent interview with MMAonSiriusXM that he's willing to step in as a replacement:

"With Costa and Whittaker, their match is in limbo. I'm more than happy to step in. I love travelling to Australia and getting a rematch to with Robert.... I'm looking forward to the title [shot], so if it ain't the title, [I want] who gets me there."

Check out the clip below: