Robert Whittaker delivered on fight night despite a rough start to his UFC Saudi Arabia journey.

The former middleweight champion showed out in this past Saturday’s UFC main event, needing less than two minutes to put away Ikram Aliskerov. It was a statement win for Whittaker, who had more to lose than gain after seeing originally scheduled opponent Khamzat Chimaev bow out of the contest due to an illness.

Following the event, Whittaker’s manager Titus Day told Fox Sports Australia that his fighter has also been experiencing health problems, and that Whittaker underwent emergency surgery 24 hours before they were to fly to Saudi Arabia.

“Rob has a really bad abscess that flared up a week before flying out,” Day said. “He had headaches, tooth pain, it was like he’d been kicked in the side of the head. He couldn’t train, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. It was f*cking painful.

“The whole side of his head was in pain so we had to rush him in for emergency surgery.”

Whittaker made no mention of these issues before or after his fight with Aliskerov. When asked about why he agreed to take on a lesser known but still dangerous opponent, he typically replied that it is his job to fight anyone, anywhere, and that he expected his preparation for Chimaev to benefit him even with a different matchup.