Rising Contender Darren Till Officially Moving To Middleweight Division
During his time-fighting at 170-pound Darren Till had some rough time making weight. Till came in five pounds over the welterweight limit for his fight against Jessin Ayari back at UFC Fight Night 10.’ last year. Then ‘The Gorilla’ failed to make weight when he competed against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson back in May. He came in at 174 pounds and went on to beat Thompson via controversial split decision at UFC Liverpool. The victory earned him a crack at the UFC welterweight title.
UFC welterweight contender Darren Till fought the biggest fight of his career at UFC 228 in a Welterweight title bout against champion Tyron Woodley. Unfortunately “The Gorilla” tasted the first defeat of his career, lost by second-round submission via a D’arce choke.
Liverpool native told PaddyPower.com that his recent loss against Woodley would probably be his last fight at 170-pound, as he’s planning on to move to the middleweight division. But hopes to run back at Woodley in a rematch down the road, after taking care of business at 185-pound.
“I’m a big dude for welterweight to be honest, so that’s probably going to be my last fight at that weight, Welterweight isn’t fully gone for me, but I’m going to be happy going up to middleweight now and I’ll be strong at that weight not having to cut as much weight. I’m at the pinnacle of my fighting career now, I’m one of the biggest names in MMA right now. I’m fighting the best and I am one of the best.”
“I’ll have a few fights at middleweight and you never know, down the line if Woodley is still about then I can have another go at him, that’s a rematch I want,” Till explained. “The future’s bright, I’ve got another 10 years in this sport. It’s not that I can’t make the weight. I’m just a big lad so I just have to be on such a strict, regimented diet and being honest, I don’t like doing it.”
Darren Till is one of the bigger Welterweights in the promotion. After destroying Donald Cerrone via first-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 118 back in 2017, Liverpool native entertains the idea of moving to light heavyweight.
Darren Till said it’s not about being disciplined enough to make a 170-pound mark after a few failed attempts to make weight, but it’s more of eating healthy meals during training sessions to be the best version to represent.
“People might say ‘he’s not disciplined enough’, but because I have to cut so much weight I can only eat the bare minimum of food and that’s not how I want to be training. I want to be eating nice, healthy, big meals and training hard, smashing my training. The move up will help me keep my head more relaxed over the weight cut and I’ll be training more with a smile on my face, so I’m looking forward to going to middleweight.”
After brutal weight cut videos of Darren Till making rounds online, many agreed that jumping up in the division would be the best move for him.
It’s unclear when he’ll make a move to middleweight; no doubt many contenders would be happy to welcome him. Let’s see how things play out for him.
