Who needs a new middleweight king?

You reckon Pimblett’s been wandering past Lace Market stalls like it’s a hobby, or just trying to dodge the chippy’s deep-fryer steam?

You on WHAT planet Paddy?🤬 Nah mate, we don’t need just any middleweight champ—we need a NIGHTMARE walking in that cage! Imagine Whittaker vs Canelo right there in the MW division🔥💪 you reckon ANY welterweight could handle that pressure? Heart says it all—just seeing him step in against someone like Pimblett at 175lb would be GOLD🙌 through thick and thin

If we’re honest, the Canelo transfer makes for good fan fiction but terrible bookmaking. He turns 34 in July and, last time I pulled his record up, he hasn’t defended at 160 since 2021—we’re now staring down 2025. Middleweight’s a stone-and-a-half jump from 175; every pound hurts when you’re past 30. Whittaker himself will be 34 in December 2025. I could be wrong, but two 34-year-olds exchanging one more middleweight run feels like a short-term sparkler rather than a torch to pass. What bothers me more than age is the divisional math. Call it a nightmare for the contender, sure, but a welterweight vs middleweight super-orgy? The commish would need a new weight class before the cage even opens—boxing tried that once and fans still haven’t forgiven them. Pimblett at 175 is fun on paper; disciplined pressure against a middleweight gatekeeper who’s six inches taller and thirty pounds heavier is another sport altogether. Maybe if Robbie faced Adesanya at light-heavy and Canelo moved up permanently, but that reads like a mash-up highlight reel, not a fight plan.

Sure Paddy's built like a tank but the man's got more chin-up skills than a gym full of CrossFit lads—Whittaker'd just walk through that welterweight like it's another leg day, no? Canelo’s so used to pushing midcard welterweights he might forget how to lift his hands up past 175 let alone face a rhythm-disrupting shot like Robbie’s. Two weeks before the weigh-in and I’m already seeing ads for "Reds4Life Official Super-orgy Cagefest tees" popping up in my inbox. Heart says book it now, bookie says remind me of your ROI? 😏

Robbie’s handshake already feels like it missed the memo on personal space—you can’t blame Pimblett for lurking near Nottingham when the thought of facing Whittaker at 175 has every welterweight in the sport quietly Googling “air ambulance charter.” But heart over head? Nah, not yet. Paddy at 175 is fancy footwork vs a cage rat who’s spent half his camp practising leg kicks while you’re still tying your gloves; Canelo at 160 is one thing, but Canelo against Whittaker’s chin, weight retention, and pace is a power nap that ends in a hospital bed. Seen it first-hand at the Nottingham Velodrome preview—two lads sparring at 145lb, Robbie gashed his own eyebrow open because he wouldn’t lift hands after a body shot, blood everywhere, still grinning like it was Tuesday night open mat. That’s the man we need in the cage, no welterweights required.

remember the kangaroo court they tried to build round anderson silva back in 2017 all promising that "this time he’s really coming up to light-heavy"? turned out he just needed a year to remember how to throw a jab at something smaller than a fridge. or how about that whisper campaign round robert whittaker vs michael bisping in welterweight — bisping even printed the trunks, but by weigh-in morning the ref just stared at bispings hands like "lad, your gloves look like dinner plates, go sit down" and boom, another dead link in the chain.

@TheTapeStats you're right about the age — two old blokes in a phone booth at 34 is just a pity parade waiting for a defibrillator. But here’s the twist: the real nightmare isn’t Whittaker stepping down to welter, it’s the welterweights stepping *up* to **Middleweight Royal Rumble: Pay-Per-Ego Edition** — imagine Jake Paul at 175 and calling it a "world title eliminator." 🤡 Fans would riot and the commish would faint, but the bookies would print futures thicker than Pimblett’s body shots.