Wrestling for MMA: Robert Whittaker

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Exploring the defensive wrestling savvy of the middleweight champion before his UFC 243 title defense.

For the first time since “Wrestling for MMA: Jorge Masvidal”, this series will focus largely on defensive wrestling.

Does Robert Whittaker’s impending title bout with Israel Adesanya, a man who is decidedly not a wrestler, necessitate a study on this topic? No, but I’ll make it worth your while and give a look at Whittaker’s potential as an offensive wrestler as well. If videos of Whittaker’s matches on the Australian and Commonwealth freestyle wrestling circuit were available there would be more than enough material, but unfortunately all we have are brief flashes from MMA and a handful of grappling matches on YouTube.

Against Uriah Hall, Whittaker showed decent control off underhooks, found striking opportunities off unsuccessful singles, and looked to redirect and plant Hall’s hips after a drag from rear standing.

It’s not much, but we’ve also seen Whittaker show off a knee pull single, finishing on the head while circling his feet, and he can scramble through shots, hitting a nice peak-out from bottom of front headlock after a failed shot. Of course, these were in grappling matches against relatively unknown competitors.

As far as Whittaker’s freestyle career goes, there are a couple of feature videos but no full match footage as far as I know.

But we do have mountains of footage of Robert Whittaker demonstrating his unique combination of physical attributes and defensive wrestling savvy, second only to Jose Aldo.

While his efforts were a bit more exaggerated in the early days at welterweight, the elements that make Whittaker a wrestler’s nightmare were present.

Robert Whittaker vs. Colton Smith (2013)

For a fighter looking to wrestle defensively, their stance, strike selection, and general approach will all significantly impact the process. We’ve extensively reviewed the dynamics or reactive and intercepting shots (see: Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar, Yoel Romero), they are without a doubt the most high percentage takedown entry in mixed martial arts. At a glance, Robert Whittaker’s blitzing style that sees him burst in like a fencer should expose him to entries.

But the combination of a side-on stance, a low lead hand, and tremendous hips make Whittaker a slippery customer, despite any presupposed conceptual drawbacks of his striking style. A side-on stance strongly favors a lead foot, turned in, and angles one side of your hips in toward your opponent, combined with a wide base it makes a penetrating double leg extremely difficult. If a fighter does in fact shoot straight on, Whittaker’s low lead hand is a built-in underhook, one that will stop the momentum of the shot and work to straighten up the posture of his opponent afterward. Of course, you would never see this stance in a wrestling match, as it’s an unstable and ineffective position to shoot from offensively, and you’re a mark for single leg entries.

In a rule-set where you don’t ever need to be initiating grappling, it’s totally possible to have a defensive game based around welcoming one kind of shot, while becoming phenomenally prepared to deal with it. Jose Aldo, the greatest defensive wrestler in MMA history, had the hips and first-line of defense in place to turn most shots into a battle for the single, where he was fantastically prepared and enthusiastic in pushing off, turning to limp leg and kicking out.

So, if you’re like Colton Smith, a fighter who is not confident in his low leg attacks, how do you initiate grappling? You can press forward with strikes, and try to work Whittaker to the cage. There are two big issues with that. The first is that Whittaker is a phenomenal counter puncher, and a sloppy striking entry could be incredibly dangerous. Even if Whittaker was wary of opening up on counters as to not leave his hips exposed, his ability to fight hands and circle off the cage once Smith had made contact completely nullified that strategy.

Ever-elite, Whittaker had no problem doing both, uncorking a rear uppercut as Smith dipped his head on a level change, then immediately resetting his feet and posture while using his lead hand to underhook and pivot off, while posting with his rear hand to keep Smith in place.

Perhaps understanding the dynamic playing out a mere 30 seconds into their fight, Smith began running in from the outside and diving on shots, with Whittaker’s hips nowhere near him. Whittaker easily stepped back, stuffed the head then shucked off the reaching arm with an underhook as he circled. Not only were these running, reaching sequences a waste of energy from Smith, it didn’t take long for Whittaker to begin unloading on back-stepping counter combinations. Whittaker used a stabbing jab, to hold his preferred distance and interrupt striking entries by Smith, long lead hooks, both to land around the reaching arms and to turn into collar ties to uppercut off of, and a near-constant rear uppercut, to capitalize on Smith’s dipping head and his outstretched arms.

Each of these strikes could easily be converted into or retracted and switched into an underhook.

Even when Smith’s entries caught Whittaker out of position, like when he switched stances mid-combination on the backfoot, striking from the hip gave him underhooks almost immediately and he was able to recover.

On the lead Whittaker stuck to those basic strikes, but also incorporated leading with a popping rear straight, a strike which could easily find its way back home and still afforded him the low lead hand that could be used to stifle shots.

CLIP: Robert Whittaker plays matador against a frustrated Colton Smith

After a round and a half of desperation, Smith did switch off to a lower leg attack off the double entry, and while it wasn’t exactly graceful, Whittaker did demonstrate his ability to turn and kick out.

In the end, it was Smith’s running entries, necessitated by Whittaker’s defensive wrestling, that opened up the finish.

Robert Whittaker vs. Derek Brunson (2016)

Despite the (valid) criticisms of Derek Brunson’s style, his wrestling does hold up under scrutiny – once he’s in wrestling situations, that is. To wrestle in MMA at the highest level, a fighter needs reliable ways to get to the positions they want. Brunson likes to work on the cage, where he can reset on his shots, likely after falling out of position on a wacky entry, then use his strength to secure a double and finish.

Getting to the cage is the problem. Brunson is capable of using defensively responsible, reliable entries to do so. Against Whittaker, he was able to step in on a long jab to back Whittaker fully to the cage, played off front headlock to get Whittaker to posture up, then shot. It was still a bit messy, but intentional and effective. In most other sequences, however, Brunson felt Whittaker’s striking prowess and freaked out, bumrushing with pumping combinations and keeping his hands on Whittaker.

While it wasn’t Whittaker’s best look, being pushed to the cage by such a reckless charge, it was being performed by a threatening athlete and it was not unreasonable to take Brunson seriously. With that being said, let’s take a look at how Whittaker defended with his back on the cage.

CLIP: Robert Whittaker holds off Derek Brunson’s wild charge

One of the reasons Whittaker is so effective defensively is urgency. As soon as Brunson enters on a shot, Whittaker takes a wide base and a side-on stance, sinking his hips to reach the attacking arms to whizzer and underhook.

The second he has his underhook, Whittaker jacked up the far elbow of Brunson and circled off on that side, capitalizing on Brunson’s compromised base as he began to work back off his knees.

In the sequence sequence depicted, you can see how heavily Whittaker favored finding a single underhook, even turning his body completely sideways and using both arms to attack one underhook. While this is a great way to gain an underhook, it’s perilous against an opponent with a competent single against the cage, we witnessed that very scenario play out when Dustin Poirier went to the same defense against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

It does however, shut down the double. Finishing singles against the cage is exceedingly difficult, and it did not appear to be a strength of Brunson’s, making Whittaker’s strategy situationally acceptable. Brunson released and opted to strike, giving Whittaker space to cut and run off the cage. Brunson re-attacked, only able to grab the single on the trail leg. Eventually that position was stalemated, a victory for the defensive wrestler.

Near the end of the fight, Brunson got to his single leg once more against the cage. One of the most popular finishes for a single on the cage is only available to a select few per weight class – lift. While Brunson is clearly very strong, he was never in a position to pursue this effectively, his base on the other side of Whittaker’s body, opposite his head and his grip. With that stance and grip, the lift already put Whittaker adjacent to Brunson, allowing Whittaker to brance in a four-point stance and land on his hip with an elbow post, from there he easily stopped Brunson’s advance with wrist control and scrambled out.

Robert Whittaker vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (2017)

While Jacare has never had much of a takedown game in open space, as you may know from Ryan Wagner shouting it from the rooftops, he does have a multitude of effective entries finishes against the cage.

It’s great that Whittaker has the skill to defend once the fight hits the cage, it’s an even more effective defense to never end up there in the first place.

When Jacare did close in on Whittaker, drawing him closer to the cage, Whittaker was able to low his level and slip off to an angle off his strikes, cutting diagonally across Jacare and pivoting back to face him.

Whittaker’s style of entry prevented Jacare from getting a clean bite on the legs as well. Stepping in while dipping behind his lead shoulder, Whittaker was proactively level changing to match any shot attempts while ensuring he’d be able to dig an underhook on the lead side or pummel for the wrist. While Jacare has finishes when on the legs, he’s not as quick to work from the clinch, especially in open space, where Whittaker was able to hand fight and separate, finding his exit in the process.

CLIP: Robert Whittaker navigates treacherous waters against “Jacare”

Even Jacare’s aggressive striking attack when Whittaker neared the fence played into Whittaker’s hands. As Jacare leapt in with a lead hook, Whittaker rolled under to his right and darted out underneath the strike of the Brazilian. Even with Whittaker slightly out of position from a wrestling standpoint, Jacare was facing the other direction, only able to dive sloppily at the legs.

Eventually, Jacare went with the most simple solution, reaching out and grabbing Whittaker when there was little distance left between him and the cage. From an overhook, Jacare hooked his leg around Whittaker’s on the right, released the grip and changed levels to attack the hooked leg on the near side and reach to double off on the other side.

As we saw against Brunson, Whittaker favored the side that would be connecting the double, underhooking the far arm while Jacare sunk to his knees.

But this time, Whittaker’s side-on stance played into Jacare’s finish. While Jacare was struggling to connect his hands for a clean shot, his level change put him underneath Whittaker, allowing him to load the future champion across his shoulders, given that Whittaker was now reaching across Jacare’s back to fight the far arm.

Eager to enter a grappling situation, Jacare pulled in on the single and rolled across his back, looking to use the momentum to get his hips to the mat while Whittaker was trapped on his back.

Two small efforts by Whittaker made all the difference.

By crossfacing Jacare, he kept the BJJ world champion from using his head to cover the hips and apply pressure and break him down. He kept the grip on the wrist across Jacare’s back, at the very least keeping him from connecting on the single and controlling Whittaker’s path.

With the attacked leg relatively free, Whittaker was able to swing it through and roll out to his knees, quickly rising to his feet and hiding his back against the cage. From there Jacare was able to attack an inside trip from over-under and briefly take Whittaker’s back in the resulting scramble, but the ensuing escape is more of a testament to Whittaker’s grappling positioning than straight wrestling.

That was the closest Jacare got to a solid position. After that, when Jacare worked for deep underhooks, Whittaker whizzered and thrust his hips back, ducking his head and escaping. When Jacare pushed forward to grab hold, Whittaker kept his arms in tight, posted on shoulders and fought wrists, throwing off the Brazilian.

Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 1 & 2 (2017\2018)

What a relief, I wrote this already.

The context of how Yoel Romero’s wrestling game in MMA works is helpful for appreciating what Whittaker was able to do, but this excerpt should be enjoyable nonetheless.

“Balance, combined with Whittaker’s quick whizzer defense and hip separation, made deep entries off Romero’s leads nearly impossible to finish.

Whittaker’s use of the whizzer goes far beyond holding, you can see him pressuring hard on the shoulder and angling his body off the whizzer side when Romero attacks, then quickly squaring his hips with Romero’s when they tie up.

Like Aldo and Romero, Whittaker also frames under the head to raise the posture of Romero on driving shots, allowing him to secure his base while bouncing back on one leg.

But these are shots from relative space when Whittaker has time to see Romero coming in, how does he deal with Romero shooting under his entries reactively?

Absurdly well, all things considered.

Whittaker’s springing striking style should theoretically be a death sentence against a proficient counter shot wrestler like Romero. You can see when Whittaker is slower to react, Romero can get a clean bite on the legs, run Whittaker’s feet the way he wants to and finish strong.

So why doesn’t it always work? Some inherent qualities in Whittaker’s mechanics help tremendously. Whittaker often turns his hips in while throwing, especially with his lead hook. Entering side-on, you’ve created the furthest possible distance between your hips, and Whittaker’s wide base compounds this effect.

Robert Whittaker also makes use of frequent feints, Romero can’t always know if an entry is coming, and he doesn’t have the energy to always shoot under an entry. Sometimes he’s more likely to throw a strike. Early in the above clip, you can see Whittaker spring in, parry Romero’s lead hand, and then easily gain his defensive bearings against a delayed level change.

At about 27 seconds of the above clip, Whittaker shows how deep his wrestling skill goes. He leads with a rear straight, his hips square. Romero ducks under and turns the corner, getting to rear standing, attempting to run his feet in circles and intermittently drag Whittaker’s hips to the mat. Whittaker saves his base by getting to the quad pod, then instantly drops to his butt and looks to sit back and out. Romero follows and Whittaker gets back to the quad pod, reaching for a switch when he sees Romero is favoring one side.

All this scrambling buys Whittaker enough time to work his way to the cage where he can lean against it and peel hands. Almost any other fighter would have conceded the position and would not have had the savvy to keep Romero from progressing.”

UFC 243: Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya

The odds are slim that wrestling, as far as leg attacks go, will not be a significant factor in a matchup featuring two of the best strikers the UFC has ever seen.

However, Whittaker’s best approach on the feet will be to lead frequently, crowding Adesanya and working past his long guard with proactive head movement and handfighting to clear potential ties.

If that truly is the case, and if Adesanya finds himself in trouble, we could see “The Last Stylebender” clinching to stifle Whittaker’s pocket offense.

For insight into the clinch skills and approach of Adesanya, I will direct you to Ryan Wagner’s wonderful breakdown of Adesanya’s full game.

Hypothetically, if they end up in clinch situations that afford takedown entry opportunities to Whittaker, I would not be surprised to see Whittaker wrestle offensively, to test the waters at the very least.