Darren Till is riding high on the biggest win of his career: a close, but impressive decision defeat of two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Unfortunately for Till and his fans, the win does come with an asterisk attached.
Not only do many fans and commenters feel that the decision should have been awarded to Wonderboy, but Till also missed weight for the bout, tipping the scales at 173.5 pounds — three pounds above the 171-pound limit for non-title welterweight fights.
Shortly after this fight, video surfaced that which showed Till struggling through what looked like an absolutely harrowing weight cut. In the video, Till could be seen crawling around on all fours, while one of his teammates claimed he’d lost his vision.
In a recent interview with ESPN, however, Till assured that he is not only still able to make the welterweight limit, but that his weight cut for his bout with Wonderboy wasn’t as bad as it looked. He was just a little off after visiting the hospital due to a family emergency that occurred in the midst of his cut.
“I didn’t lose sight, I was just feeling dizzy,” Till said. “It was five o’clock in the morning and I was up all night and I’d been back and forth to the hospital and then in the sauna. Obviously, the video makes it look a little bit worse but it wasn’t in any way bad.”
“I can still make welterweight, that’s for certain,” Till added. “Yeah, it’s put a little dampener on my win, but it doesn’t change the fact that I beat the No. 1 in the world. If anything, I was worse off in the fight. I was at 60 percent because I cut weight wrong that night. I was dehydrated, I was weak, so I wasn’t my full self, but I just feel like a bit too much of a big deal has been made out of it.”
As for whether Till prefers the early weigh-ins or the afternoon weigh-ins:
“It doesn’t matter. If it’s 9 o’clock or 4 o’clock, you make weight.”
Do you think Darren Till should stay at welterweight or move to middleweight?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/13/2018.