Robert Whitaker doesn’t know if Beral Muhammad has the best game plan this weekend.
On Saturday, Muhammad lost Jack Della Madalena’s welterweight title and made a unanimous decision to the Australians in the main event of UFC 315. This was an exceptional performance from “JDM” who held back most of Muhammad’s takedowns and chose him with his power shots in the foot. Della Maddalena also became the third Australian champion in UFC history behind Whittaker and Alexander Volkanovski.
“Another Australian champion!” Whittaker said on his YouTube channel. “How good is it to be Australian now? He’s just sticking to guns. He just did everything well. I can’t be happy. I’m proud of myself as a punch now.”
But as happy as Whittaker was the result, the former UFC middleweight champion can’t help but wonder if Muhammad gave his best explanation of himself on Saturday. In pre-match accumulation, Muhammad claimed he hadn’t shot once with Della Maddelena, vowed to show off his “Canero’s Hand” instead, and while he filmed nine takedown attempts, it was not yet the same focused grappling attack that has become a hallmark of Muhammad’s style.
“I was hoping for more takedowns,” Whittaker said. “Now, I’m easy to say on the outside. We don’t know how he was feeling or what happened during the fight. I don’t know how he felt. I think I was lined up with his two Jacks when he mixed with Strike and portrayed Jack in Strike.
“Why didn’t we see more of it? I can’t help but feel like the Berral is trying to make an impressive point for Jack in the first three rounds, and if that’s the case, it’s ridiculous. Jack is amazing with that mid-range boxing.
“In my opinion, what led Beral to the title and made him the champion was the fact that he could punch punches, shoots, punch punches, and punch punches. He’s not Gilbert Burns on the ground.
Of course, Whittaker may have been more about Della Maddalena not allowing Muhammad to fight his style of fighting.
“Now I can see Jack did the same good job of discouraging Beral from the takedown and maintaining that distance,” Whittaker said. “…I think the guys were still relatively fresh during the first three rounds, but he had very good control over the centering. He didn’t let Beral push him up towards the fence, so Jack wanted to do his job, and Beral wanted to attack with him.
After the victory, Della Madalena said he was next open to a super fight with lightweight champion Islam Makachev. And if that’s the case, Whittaker thinks it might not be easy for “JDM” to spend time like Saturday.
“I’m interested. I’m very interested,” Whittaker said. “Islamic Makhachev thinks he’ll do everything Beral does, but better. He makes everything better. I think it’s a million dollar question. The Takedown game is far higher than the Beral’s game, but Jack’s ability to take advantage of the position he found himself in this fight, and he’s better than the Beral.
“What does that mean? I don’t know. (laughs)