"Middle teeth were unstable since the fight with Dricus" - Robert Whittaker undergoes lower jaw surgery, might go under the knife again before return

Robert Whittaker has resumed no-contact training after undergoing surgery to fix the lower jaw. However, another surgical procedure might delay his return to the competition until June 2025.

Whittaker suffered a first-round submission loss against Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight title eliminator fight at UFC 308. A lower jaw injury from Chimaev's face crank submission hold forced Whittaker to tap out, temporarily halting his title run.

In a recent interview with Sherdog, Whittaker's coach, Alex Prates, gave an update on the Aussie fighter's recovery:

"After he had his six teeth implanted, he returned to training on Monday, but without any contact. He will train muay thai, run, everything —but without contact. Maybe he will still have an operation on his elbow to remove some bone fragments, but we haven't decided yet. It's a minor surgery, but it would cost another month. Our plan is to return to the Octagon in June.” [H/T Sherdog]

Whittaker had previously stated that he had loose front teeth since he injured his jaw at 19, adding that it worsened during the Dricus du Plessis fight at UFC 290. Prates reiterated this while speaking to Sherdog and implied that Chimaev's face crank caused the loose teeth to break, subsequently leading to the surgery:

"His middle teeth were unstable since the fight with Dricus [Du Plessis]. Chimaev’s [face crank] was exactly on top of these three front teeth that broke immediately.” [H/T Sherdog]

The UFC 308 loss against Chimaev snapped Whittaker's two-fight win streak. He had defeated Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov after du Plessis handed him a second-round TKO defeat.

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Dr. Brian Sutterer explained the exact nature of Robert Whittaker's injury

Viral images of Robert Whittaker's lower jaw injury worried fans about the fan-favorite fighter's health. Renowned sports physician Dr. Brian Sutterer analyzed the nature of Whittaker's injury during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. Sutterer explained:

"What we were seeing in that picture was just absolutely terrible... Basically, this lower portion of the bone, where those teeth are anchored, broke. That's why you see those three teeth still attached together but pushed back into his mouth. So technically, it's not a true jaw fracture like we typically think about in combat sports, but you still have a break in the lower portion of the jaw."

Check out Brian Sutterer's comments below (9:17):

While the injury was severe, Dr. Sutterer clarified that it could not prove career-ending or life-altering, especially with proper medical treatment.