Robert Whittaker discusses Darren Till matchup and what lured him back to fighting

When Robert Whittaker finally gave himself time off, it didn’t take long for him to get that itch to compete again.

The former UFC middleweight champion recently opened up about being burned out, a realization that prompted him to step away from the daily grind.

He was scheduled to face Jared Cannonier at UFC 248, but withdrew and the fight was scrapped from the card. Now, after completely stepping away from training, Whittaker (20-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) has regained that desire to fight.

“So when I felt burned out, I didn’t feel like training, I didn’t feel like fighting, I didn’t feel like working, period,” Whittaker told MMA Junkie. “Anything, any work – I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to couch potato, if you would. So when I was on my break and I was just spending a lot of time with the family, I was just feeling really good. I was just doing things that I wanted to do. I was playing a lot of video games, reading books, pottering around the backyard. I was just doing me.

“And then that itch, that hunger to grind, to get back into training, to work on my combat, to fight again, to get back in that limelight – that all started coming back. That all started coming back. That fire got lit and it started burning brighter and brighter until it reached a point that I realized I haven’t lost the fire and the will to train and to fight. I was just burned out.”

Whittaker is slated to take on Darren Till in the UFC Dublin headliner in August, but the coronavirus outbreak has left uncertainty over the status of the matchup.

For now, Whittaker will continue to train like his fight is happening, and has even engaged in some back-and-forth banter with Till online in what, for him, represents a refreshing build-up to a fight.

“I find him funny. I think a lot of his posts are funny. He seems like my sort of cat,” Whittaker said. “He’s the sort of guy that I can tell like we’re going to punch on and be friends afterwards. But (I’m) certainly looking forward to the fight. Just because we fight doesn’t mean we have to hate each other. I’ve never understood that. I understand fighting is very serious and there’s a lot into it and I treat it as such, but I’ve never hated any of my opponents. It just is what it is. This is our job.”

Till made his middleweight debut last November, edging out Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244. Though it wasn’t the most action-packed affair, Whittaker can respect Till’s approach to the fight, and is wary of what he brings to the table.

“I think it was a very smart fight,” Whittaker said. “I thought he fought to a perfect game plan. Gastelum is very dangerous. Obviously, I was preparing for him that first time, so I understand and I’ve seen a lot of tape. He’s a dangerous guy and Till worked him out and put on a really good performance, in my opinion.

“I think Till is very dangerous – very, very dangerous. His range and distance finding is uncanny, so I’m going to have to take the fight with a lot of respect, give him respect, and take the fight like any other: train hard, get in there and just see what happens.”