FOUR years ago, Kelvin Gastelum was in a position similar to the one in which we now find Darren Till. Back then Gastelum was as much a scourge to the buffet as he was to the welterweight division: no matter how much his build seemed to say that he could make the weight if he just applied some discipline, he kept turning up heavy.
After Gastelum had failed to make welterweight for three different fights, it was decided that he would have to go up to middleweight full time. Many fans scoffed at his chances because his frame was ludicrously short and stocky compared to many of the top middleweights but while his build was sawn-off, his punching power matched.
With his wicked hand speed and a refusal to hold still for even a moment when taken to the mat, Gastelum fought a streak of terrific fights where he never looked as though he didn’t belong. In his last showing, Gastelum met the six-foot-four Israel Adesanya for an interim title and though he came up short on the scorecards, the two left each other suitably bloodied and bruised.
Darren Till’s own transition to middleweight feels less like a punitive decision made behind the scenes. Till missed weight at welterweight a couple of times, but since his most recent failure he has made weight twice with no issues. Instead Till’s move comes in an effort to somewhat revitalize his career after a pair of bad losses. The first of these was a rushed title fight with Tyron Woodley where the British upstart seemed to lose all confidence before the opening bell: showing nothing but feints in the first round, before biting down on his mouthpiece and running straight onto a counterpunch out of the gate in the second round.
The second defeat came at the hands of Jorge Masvidal in a fight where Till’s speed and accuracy seemed to be too much for “Gamebred”, but Till’s high chin and disregard for defence after he had got his own shots in left him a sitting duck for Masvidal’s returns. Masvidal gritted his teeth through the first round and found Till’s off switch in the second.
Believing that the answer to all problems lies in the weight cut is a superstition common to all fighters. Whether you believe you just need to wring out a couple more pounds, or that a smaller cut will tax you less, changing the cut and changing the weight class is always the first excuse. But welterweight or middleweight, Till couldn’t have picked a better opponent to test the specific technical problems that cost him against Masvidal.
So much of Till’s game has been playing the bully. He forces his opponent back towards the fence—eliminating their option of retreat—and blasts their head back with a long left straight. When they swing back he steps back or pulls away at the waist. His head is often straight up in the air and when he gets cracked he will mug to his opponent and show no signs of changing his plan. The knockout blow in the Masvidal fight was just one of several that caught Till pulling back with his head up and his chin undefended. And the high head and lack of a guard aren’t just issues on defence—when opponents can get the read on Till’s exceptionally quick left straight they can often crack him over the top as Woodley and Masvidal both did.
Because Gastelum is so often the shorter man in his middleweight fights he has mastered the ability to bounce in and cover distance in the wake of his opponents’ blows. Israel Adesanya is the polar opposite of Darren Till in defensive awareness—every punch or kick Adesanya throws is followed by a retreat, cutting an angle off the line of attack, and applying frames and a guard to make it even tougher to get to him. And yet catch him Gastelum did.
While Till always bragged about how large he was at welterweight, his best attribute was always his speed. Till is lightning quick with his left straight but also with his jab, round kicks and even a nifty low line side kick that he used to annoy Stephen Thompson. While he lacks the disciplined defensive responses of an Israel Adesanya or Jose Aldo, his reactions are also generally very quick so his pull backs and retreats have worked the majority of the time. However, a great deal of that success lay in his ability to back his opponent up and pressure them, and a good deal of physical presence is necessary for that—particularly if you’re not an especially skilled technical wrestler.
On the surface this fight is one between two great southpaw straight hitters who don’t often go far outside of that to get the job done. When you match two southpaws it can often get a little more complicated because the lead shoulder is better placed to defend the straight left and the lead hand no longer checks the opponent’s jab (watch Till vs Masvidal to see Till effectively take away Masvidal’s terrific jab with handfighting).
Because of Gastelum’s remarkable speed and ability to close the distance it seems as though it would be in Till’s best interest to get to work with his low kicks and body kicks to let the air out of Gastelum’s tires, and perhaps use the low line side kick or an oblique kick to jam Gastelum’s charges. For Gastelum’s part, returning on the left straight is obviously going to be plan A, but if Till fights smarter than he has in his last couple the bout might hinge on how well Gastelum can return on kicks or even threaten to turn them into takedowns.
