Fight Study 70 – Whittaker vs. Till (transcript) (Patreon)

The UFC has an obligation to deliver 30 events per year on ESPN in order to collect part of its $1.5 billion dollar contract. With 2020 looking more uncertain as the COVID-19 cases pile up, the UFC has figured that it needs a way to fulfill its obligation, by any means necessary. Between Yas Island and the UFC Apex facility, events are able to continue in somewhat of a regular fashion as far as viewers are concerned. Sure, things were weird without the roars of cheering fans, but after a few fights everyone (including the broadcast team, fighters, and fans) seemed to adjust.  There’s no set date for a return to Abu Dhabi, but at least the visit ended with a great technical match-up between Robert Whittaker and Darren Till. 

In the main event, Whittaker defeated Till by unanimous decision with scorecards of 48-47 across the board. Sure, the right fighter won, but a closer look at the individual tallies shows some bizarre scoring. For example, judge Anders Ohlsson had Till winning the last round even though the other two judges, Ben Cartlidge and Clemens Werner, gave it to Whittaker. Such is the state of MMA judging, and we can only be grateful that at least this time around, the right person was given the nod. Two events prior to this, judges also gave Volkanovski the “W” despite the vast majority of MMA media, fans, and other fighters stating that Holloway had done enough to win back the belt. We can argue all day about the issues in MMA judging, but that’s a topic for an entirely different episode. This time around, the fight was close enough in moments and no one fighter was dominant from start to finish. There were a lot of questions surrounding both Whittaker and Till heading into this match-up, and even though the fight wasn’t a slugfest that some had hoped for, it delivered in many other ways. 

For Whittaker, this was his first fight back since losing the title to Israel Adesanya back in October of last year.  Have the wars with Yoel Romero taken their toll on him? Was the loss to Adesanya a sign of deterioration? How would he deal with a knockout loss like that? Till was victorious in his middleweight debut against Gastelum, but he also had a lot of questions surrounding his future. The fight with Gastelum was more of a clinical performance and didn’t have most of Till’s usual taunts and striking flair. Was Till too scared to trade with fighters anymore? Did he beat a Gastelum that’s on his way down? How would he deal with a more complete MMA fighter? All these questions were more or less answered with this fight, and it was test of who had the better fight IQ.

As fans, we’ve been spoiled as of late with amazing wars like Tony Ferguson vs Justin Gaethje, Josh Emmett vs Shane Burgos, and Dustin Poirier vs Dan Hooker. Every now and then, it’s refreshing to get technical match-ups like this, but it’s not without precedent. Take another look at matches like Volkanovski vs Holloway 2 and Calvin Kattar vs Dan Ige and you’ll see that tactical fighters have been getting their fair share of the spotlight. Whittaker vs Till had all the promise of a war, but the fight unfolded like a striking chess match. Even though both fighters are billed as “strikers”, they have well rounded MMA games that allow them to compete at the top of the middleweight class.

Early on, Till tried to apply pressure and lunged in, only to be met with a stiff jab to the face. It’s been said before, and pointed out in the fight preview, that if you rush in on Whittaker, it’s practically an invitation to get hit by jabs and left hooks all nights. This was a lesson that Till learned before the fight clock started, and luckily for him he didn’t make too many of these mistakes as the fight wore on. Immediately after, Till seemed to settle down and do what he does best: pressure with feints.

Till doesn’t have a variety of strikes that he can draw from like Adesanya, nor does he have the one-shot power like Romero or Paulo Costa. What he does well is move in while feinting to draw overreactions. His left straight and 1-2’s are usually his favorite strikes, and by keeping his hands low and coming in from southpaw, this is often more than enough to confuse most of his opponents. Whittaker himself fell prey to this when he swung back with a right hand only to get an elbow across his jaw, dropping him in the first round. When Till can get you to overreact to a strike, it gives him the perfect opportunity to hit you with his counters. Whittaker does have a bad habit of attacking in a straight line (as seen in the Adesanya fight) and Till took advantage of this a couple of times.

When Till started feinting by pumping his shoulders and bumping his hips, Whittaker reacted by either swinging his overhand right, covering his head, or darting to his left. Till’s left high kick was a nice addition and worked well with his left straight. The left straight + left high kick was a staple of Mirko Cro-Cop’s game and was used recently by the likes of Conor McGregor to fake out Cowboy Cerrone. It gave Whittaker some pause and it seemed that this could Till’s fight after all. Round 2 changed the conversation.

Whittaker has battled back from adversity before, and this fight against Till was no different. Knowing that he probably lost the first round, he went back to his corner and adjusted accordingly. When Till started moving forward, Whittaker started showing his jabs again that stopped Till from aggressively chasing him. Even though he was mixing in feints well, Whittaker stepped in whenever Till turned in towards him and the jab cracked him enough times to keep him honest. Whittaker was still bursting in for his blitz attacks, but he limited the amount of times he did this on a straight line. It wasn’t uncommon to see him throw the overhand right, duck down and come back up with the left hook from the opposite side before darting back. One of these right hooks is what dropped Till in the second round. The left hook is Whittaker’s money punch, and even though it doesn’t always land clean, the threat is always there and usually enough to keep opponents from countering right away.

No analysis would be complete without mentioning how Whittaker brought back his calf kicks to keep Till in place so when he would dive in for his hips, he would stand still. After Whittaker did this enough times, Till wasn’t sure where his hands and hips should be, since he didn’t know if more kicks were to come or if a single leg takedown attempt was in the works. Whittaker was able to grab a hold of Till’s lead leg and posted his rear hand on Till’s shoulders and drive him back, à la Frankie Edgar. He wasn’t as successful with the takedowns per say, but it created opportunities for him to throw strikes off the clinch break. This is how Daniel Cormier was able to sneak in so many strikes against all his opponents, and it’s been used in boxing by the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr to keep opponents from retaliating post-clinch. Whittaker’s ability to use his wrestling offensively was a nice treat and definitely showed that he can mix things up when necessary and combined with his kicking game, opponents have a lot more things to be worried about.     

This doesn’t mean that Whittaker was perfect the rest of the fight. His habit of landing crisp strikes only to start brawling towards the end crept in from time to time, and Till definitely was able to land his own counters whenever those opportunities came. Both fighters threw high kicks that whizzed dangerously past each other heads, and Till’s 1-2’s caught Whittaker whenever he retreated straight back and didn’t offer a counter. It was interesting to see Till not follow through with a clinch heavy game plan this time around. Against Gastelum, he had no problem throwing short punches and then immediately clinching up to keep Gastelum from returning fire. It’s not pretty, but it works. Andre Ward did this a record number of times against Mikkel Kessler and was able to win the WBA super middleweight title. Perhaps after feeling Whittaker’s strength, Till concluded that the grappling could exhaust him early and that’s definitely not something he wants in a five-round fight. Towards the end of the fifth round, Whittaker was finally able to complete a series of takedowns, ranging from single legs to outside trips just as Till opened a huge cut on the side of his head. It’s a crafty veteran move and definitely sealed the deal on two of the judge’s scorecards.

With a win over Till, Whittaker is back in the win column and showed that he hasn’t lost too much of his step from his days as champion. He still has some troublesome habits that could be dangerous against crafty (or powerful) strikers, but his overall MMA game and ability to adapt on the fly makes him hard to beat. He made no indication that he wants another title shot right away and giving him contenders could build up a re-match properly. Whittaker was originally slated to face Jared Cannonier back in early 2020, but the fight never materialized. Cannonier is still without a dance partner and has been nursing a torn pectoral muscle since February. The timing could be right for this match-up to be rescheduled for closer to end of this year.

For Till, even though he lost this fight he showed that he has a real future at middleweight. He took the former champion to a decision and didn’t get embarrassed. Uriah Hall was also supposed to fight during the UFC’s pandemic event tour, but his original opponent, Jacare Souza, tested positive for COVID-19 the day of the weigh-in’s. Hall is lower in the rankings, but he’s still in the top ten and always willing to stand and trade with his opponents. Pitting an offensive minded striker against a crafty counter-puncher could produce an interesting fight.

The middleweight division is currently in a pretty good spot. The champion, Israel Adesanya, has made it a point to be as active as possible and is trying to uphold that promise by defending his title multiple times a year. The same can’t be said for a lot of other weight classes. The men’s Bantamweight is the most stacked division in the entire UFC and they JUST crowned a new champion, and there hasn’t been an announcement of who’s going to be next. The lightweights have exchanged so many interim championship titles that it’s hard to keep track. Yes, Adesanya has looked dominant thus far but he’s in division full of guys that have the power and skillset to upset him on any given night. You don’t always have to be perfect to become champion, sometimes all you need are the right opportunities to come along. Bisping went from being a veteran to champion by having an amazing year, and Gaethje became interim champion by willing to take the fight against Tony Ferguson on short notice. Here’s to hoping that the sport stays as crazy an unpredictable as ever.