ABU DHABI – Robert Whittaker has been to the top of the mountain, and he could be on the cusp of going back.

And because of that, in part, it’s likely the former UFC middleweight titleholder has found a way to stay grounded in pursuit of another title shot. But he also thinks a dramatic change in his life outside the sport was instrumental.

Figuring out how to balance MMA with kids and family life is what helps set him apart, he thinks.

“The big part of it is all about redefining drives and goals,” Whittaker said at Wednesday’s media day for UFC 308. “I’ve been in the UFC for a long time. You don’t see a lot of fighters stay in the UFC for as long as I have at the caliber and the level that I’ve been at. I think I owe a lot of that to just being able to redefine my goals, redefine my drive.”

Whittaker (27-7 MMA, 17-5 UFC) on Saturday has just the latest big test in his career when he takes on unbeaten fellow title contender Khamzat Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in the UFC 308 (pay-per-view, ESPN+) co-main event at Etihad Arena.

Chimaev is more than a 2-1 favorite at the betting window, and that part is slightly new to Whittaker. He’s only been an underdog once in the past seven years, and that was his rematch with Israel Adesanya in an attempt to win back the middleweight title he lost to him in 2019.

But the life circumstances Whittker cares most about, he thinks help him in the cage, too.

“When I started my career, I didn’t have kids,” Whittaker said. “So the introduction of kids during that period, it’s mind-blowing. And anyone that has kids will understand – it changes you. I think a lot of fighters struggle with change … But I’ve made those changes to my family.

“I understand what is important in life. I have my priorities straight, and I guess to sum it up, I understand what I’m fighting for. I fight for my family. It wouldn’t make sense not to spend time with them at the cost of fighting.”

Check out Whittaker’s full media day interview above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

Form at the Afcon finals certainly appears to have been a major factor in Caf’s shortlists.

Brighton forward Simon Adingra, who set up both goals in the final for winners Ivory Coast, is named on the player of the year list alongside Nigeria centre-back William Troost-Ekong and South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, who both had impressive tournaments.

Soufiane Rahimi was nominated after scoring eight goals in Morocco’s bronze-winning campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics, with Atlas Lions team-mate Achraf Hakimi also included.

Ivory Coast lead the nominations in the national team category and Elephants manager Emerse Fae is in the running for coach of the year after masterminding their fairytale Nations Cup triumph on home soil.

Elsewhere, Brighton pair Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh are shortlisted for young player of the year alongside Leicester City midfielder Bilal El Khannouss.

The nominees for the women’s categories are yet to be announced by Caf, with the awards ceremony to be held in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 16 December.

It’s a weird feeling to be on the cusp of having a dream come true, knowing the only thing that stands between you and it is one single contingency.

So close but so far away.

That’s what Carlos Leal described feeling when his team received a life-long-awaited email from UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.

The email said that if Leal (21-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) wanted the UFC 308 opening vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov (23-2-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), it was his.

Obviously, he wanted it. But there was one problem.

He was still under contract with UAE Warriors. In fact, he’d already flown out for the Tuesday event in Abu Dhabi, scheduled to take place four days before the UFC held its own in the same city.

“Hey guys, so here’s the situation,” manager Lucas Lutkus, of All In Sports Management, told Leal and his team. “The UAE Warriors said that you are free to go as long as we can get a replacement. We need to figure something out.”

Lutkus began going through his rolodex of contacts, skimming to see what welterweight fighters might want to fly across the world to take on Erkin Darmenov (13-8).

As this was going on, Leal’s coach Rodrigo Cavalheiro had his mental wheels spinning. He flew across the world to corner his student, and a crazy idea popped into his head. But perhaps it wasn’t nuts after all.

“We knew that my former opponent was struggling a little bit to make weight because we were watching him every day train with sauna suits, etc.,” Leal told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “I think he was already struggling a little bit.”

Weighing 215 pounds and only having one fight since May 2022, Cavalheiro volunteered to step in for his student if the fight could take place at middleweight.

Darmenov and the promotion agreed to bump the bout up a weight class.

To any outside observer, the move was selfless. But Cavalheiro explains the decision was actually self-centered.

“I didn’t hesitate at all,” Cavalheiro told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “If I had to cut even more weight, I would’ve had to try to cut even more weight. Because it wasn’t just about trying to make his dream come true. It was also about making my dream come true, to have him in the UFC. It was also a dream of mine. It was basically like asking me if I want to make my dream come true. Obviously, I had to say yes. Being able to help him achieve his main objective this year. Of course, I couldn’t say no. I had to be there for my student all times.”

Cavalheiro, 41, admits he’s in the late stages of his career, semi-retired from competition with not much left in the tank.

Being out of camp only complicated things. The weight cut turned out to be a much harder fight than the bout itself.

“I wasn’t ready to come back at all,” Cavalheiro laughed. “I had just done surgery because I tore my bicep four months ago. I wasn’t thinking about fighting. I even joked with Carlos when we got the UFC offer. I said, ‘Now, I can finally retire.’ Then Lucas tells me, ‘Now, you have to fight.’ My blood boils like a fighter. My mind still works like a fighter’s mind. I have the fighting spirit. Even though I wasn’t physically ready, I was very mentally ready to step into that cage.”

The weight cut scene was quite dramatic, Lutkus describes. The team rolled down to the scale area with a fraction of a pound left but less than 10 minutes remaining in the weigh-ins window.

With sauna suits on, Cavalheiro and Leal made the most of the waning seconds of the window, however. The two engaged in intense wrestling drills next to the scale.

A crowd of UAE Warriors fighters and coaches, promotional staff and more gathered, literally cheering out loud, rooting for Cavalheiro to sweat out the final few drops.

“Rodrigo steps into the scale at like 10:59, the last possible minute,” Lutkus recalled. “The guy from the UAE Warriors organization said, ‘We can’t wait any more. You have to step on the scale right now.’ Then, he stepped on the scale and it wouldn’t stop moving between the exact weights, which was like 185 and 185.1. Then the guy was like, ‘No, we have to wait until the scale gets flat.’ The coach of his opponent was there, watching close as well. He said it felt like forever because he was weak. Then, when the scale got flat, it showed he had made the exact weight he needed to. He just let out a huge scream.”

The primal yell signified two dreams clinched – Leal’s and Cavalheiro’s. The most necessary part was over, but there was still a fight to be had.

Tuesday, Cavalheiro stepped into the cage opposite an opponent 13 years younger, who trained a full camp. The odds were fully against him, but the MMA gods were behind him.

As the clock ticked past the midway point of Round 1, Cavalheiro nailed Darmenov with a big left hook and followed it up with punches that put the Russian fighter to sleep.

It was the cherry on top of an already special fight week sundae.

“I’m not only Carlos’ head coach, I’m his main sparring partner,” Cavalheiro said. “I know I have to keep myself at my best. Because if I want him to become a world champion one day, I have to be a big challenge for him at the gym to make him keep evolving. I know that I have to get better, and better, and better. … I also knew I could take a fight on a few days’ notice. I’m not sure if I’m ever doing that again unless I really need to. But it was good to show to me that even though I wasn’t physically 100 percent, I could still knock people out at the international.”

Rodrigo Cavalheiro SLEEPS Erkin Darmenov with a left hand to the jaw.

Cavalheiro replaced his student Carlos Leal on a week’s notice who got the call to fight Rinat Fakhretdinov at UFC 308. Crazy #UAEWarriors55 pic.twitter.com/dJPAMuJU9O

— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) October 22, 2024

With Cavalheiro’s fight done, the attention was immediately back on the primary goal. It was the same goal that was on their minds when they boarded their flight from Brazil to United Arab Emirates, just with a different twist.

The sacrifice of his coach is not lost on Leal. He now feels it even more imperative to make an impact in his UFC debut Saturday. Just as Cavalheiro viewed Leal’s fight as a dream come true, Leal views a victory as not only his own, but Cavalheiro’s as well.

“We really do have a great bond,” Leal said. “Over and over across the years, he’s had several opportunities to show to me how much he cares about me. He has done that time and time again. Every time he does something like this, I think it makes us even more in sync. I’m feeling better than ever for what I witnessed and what I saw him do. He showed to me that anything is possible. I’m pretty sure I’m going to pay him back for the sacrifice that he did for me when I get in the cage Saturday and knock Rinat out.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

Dana White is dead-set on finding an alternative methodology to the UFC rankings, so much so that he says he recently reached out to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In an interview with TNT Sports on Thursday, White kept many of his UFC rankings ideas close to his chest but continued to talk down on the current system of select media outlet representative polling.

“I could go on and on and on but I won’t,” White said. “We literally had meetings this week to work on it. I actually talked to Mark Zuckerberg, too, about AI, so yeah. I’m totally going to fix the rankings. We’re going to make a lot of strong moves here coming into 2025.”

White has become increasingly vocal about his displeasure with the current system, which has been in place since rankings were implemented in February 2013.

Recent gripes have included Renato Moicano staying put after his win over Benoit Saint Denis, Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree’s lack of impact, and Max Holloway being below Justin Gaethje.

White has since indicated that an algorithm-based ranking or alternative system is likely to be installed in the coming months. While White has said he’s having meetings with different groups regarding potential changes, the reference of Zuckerberg marks the first specific name he’s dropped.

The anticipated clash between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway at UFC 308 is almost here.

The other fighters at UFC 308 media day gave their opinions on how it will all go down at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday afternoon.

Ilia Topuria (15-0) makes his first title defense at the event. Topuria won the belt in his last trip to the Octagon when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round at UFC 298 this past February.

Holloway (26-7) has won four of his last five fights. The former UFC champion is coming off of one of the most iconic performances of his career when he delivered a fifth-round knockout of Justin Gaethje in the UFC 300 main event to win the “BMF” title belt. He earned Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night honors for this memorable clash.

Holloway has had three title shots since he last had the belt at UFC 240, coming up short each time against Volkanovski.