Whittaker and Till make weight ahead of clash at UFC Fight Night 3

Robert Whittaker and Darren Till are set for their key Fight Island matchup at Fight Island on Sunday in Abu Dhabi. The middleweight contenders had no issues with the scale at Friday morning’s weigh-ins for UFC Fight Night 3, with both coming in at 186 pounds.

This will be Whittaker’s first fight since losing his UFC title to Israel Adesanya, while Till makes his second middleweight appearance in the UFC after defeating Kelvin Gastelum by split decision this past November, according to a MMA report.

In the co-main event, both Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira weighed in at 206 pounds for their light heavyweight trilogy bout. This is expected to be the last fight of Nogueira’s 19-year MMA career.

Also of note, longtime light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson weighed in at 240 pounds for his UFC heavyweight debut.

Of the 30 fighters to weigh in for Sunday’s card, only one missed weight, veteran Francisco Trinaldo. “Massaranduba” came in at 160 pounds for his lightweight bout with Jai Herbert. The bout will proceed at a catch weight with Trinaldo forfeiting 30 percent of his purse.

A source from Trinaldo’s team told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz that Trinaldo started to feel pain during his cut and that UFC doctors came in to check on him. He decided to proceed with the attempt, but his body stopped sweating.

For the 29-year-old Whittaker, Sunday’s bout is the comeback, the first one since the loss of his belt to Israel Adesanya last October and a subsequent break where he revealed that he was suffering from burnout, not surprising after a prolonged stretch of tough championship fights and a reign filled with injuries and illness, UFC reported.

The 27-year-old Till has had his own struggles, mainly with the scale as he skyrocketed to a welterweight title shot against Tyron Woodley in 2018 in just his sixth UFC fight. He lost that bout via second-round submission, and six months later he suffered just his second pro loss to Jorge Masvidal. It was before that bout that he realized his days at 170 pounds were numbered.

“I was like a shadow,” he said. “I was really putting myself through a mental struggle. And that’s not what fighting’s about.”

Subsequently making the call to move to 185 pounds, Till went through a wild ride to get to his debut at middleweight last November against Kelvin Gastelum, with visa issues almost keeping him out of New York City for the pivotal meeting. Till ultimately got there, put any doubts in the back of his head, made weight and then won a close split decision.

He could breathe again, and he set his sights firmly on Whittaker. Yet while he took some social media jabs at “The Reaper,” it was all in good fun according to the Liverpool native.

“I think he’s just a nice person,” said Till of his opponent. “All the stuff I was saying was just nitpicking.”

It got him the fight he wanted, and his vision for what happens on Saturday night and beyond is as clear as it’s ever been.

“I’ve always been a very hard worker, but this is the most dedicated I’ve ever been,” Till said. “I’ve sort of got that mindset now, the whatever it takes mindset, so I’ll do whatever I have to do to get that strap and beat Whittaker and so forth to get to the status I want to get to.”