Point of interest: Potential grappling threats
As we saw in Till’s last fight opposite Kelvin Gastelum, the English fighter was able to smartly utilize the clinch to shut down striking and ensure that the grappling was happening on his terms.
Although this approach is a simple one that’s seldom executed cleanly in MMA, Till may still hit some turbulence if he miscalculates his wrestling efforts with Whittaker.
The Australian native may not have the typical American accolades as Till’s last opponent, but wrestling is something Whittaker has long been dedicated to behind the scenes.
Before his last camp, Whittaker’s coach compared his fighter to the great Georges St-Pierre, citing the quiet progression of his overall skills – particularly his wrestling. The 29-year-old quietly won a gold medal at the Australian National Wrestling Championships back in 2017, and took first at a Commonwealth Games qualifier later that year (though he was unable to follow through and represent Australia due to UFC contract obligations).
Said wrestling work, however, has shown up more and more in Whittaker’s career, albeit primarily applied in a defensive manner considering his stylistic run of opponents. The 11-year pro is among the likes of Max Holloway when it comes to smartly disrupting grips to defend takedowns as a second layer of sorts (falling right behind his footwork, of course) and separating after.
Should Whittaker’s defensive capabilities portend his offensive wrestling abilities, then Till may have to dig deep into his bag of skills.
Demonstrating a solid (and I dare say underrated) takedown defense during his time in the octagon, Till does not wield a grappling base that you would stereotype with his region.
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Coming from a Luta Livre background (a grappling style more synonymous with catch wrestling than Brazilian jiu-jitsu), Till demonstrates excellent positional awareness and disciplined hand-fighting, a technique that helps him defend takedowns, as well as allows him to unleash unforgiving elbows when topside.
From the bottom, the Liverpudlian generally displays decent craft and composure when put on his back, and will usually not stick around too long to see how things play out (outside of his fight with Tyron Woodley, of course). Instead, Till will typically elect to turtle-out to his base and work to stand from there.
The potential problem, however, is that if Till goes that route in scrambling scenarios, he does risk giving his back in transit – something that his opponent is not shy about abusing.
Not only has Whittaker worked on his wrestling in recent years, but he’s also earned himself a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in the process, as I suspect we’re dealing with an even sharper version of the Whittaker that we saw swarm Uriah Hall.
Still, I wouldn’t quite count on Whittaker controlling Till, as even Jorge Masvidal had a difficult time out-foxing the Englishman inside of their brief scrambles. In fact, I suspect we see both parties act accordingly and urgently inside of scrambling scenarios, which should be fun for as long as they last.
Next point of interest: Odds, opinion and prediction