Darren Till is on a two-fight losing streak and now moving up to middleweight. At UFC 244, the Englishman will take on Kelvin Gastelum who is coming off of an interim title shot.
For Till, the stakes are high for this one. With Gastelum being ranked fourth, a win would put him in the top-five of the middleweight division. Yet, the Englishman doesn’t believe a win here should get him a title shot as there are other fighters who deserve it more.
“It’s just a fun fight,” Till said, to MTKMMA. “I don’t want to disrespect all the guys in the middleweight division who have beaten a lot of middleweights to get to that title shot. I don’t wanna just jump in. If I beat Gastelum and fight for the title straight away, even though I won’t be far away, I feel there’s other guys in the division who deserve it more than me. I just want to f*****g fight Kelvin Gastelum, that’s all I wanna do.”
When he steps into the Octagon against Gastelum, Darren Till has one expectation for the fight, and that is it will be a war. He knows there won’t be any grappling involved and is prepared to stand and bang with him.
“I really hope it’s a war,” Till said. “I hope it’s an all-out bloodbath war, that’s what I want. Kelvin Gastelum, on no planet on this Earth, is wrestlef*****g me. He’s not taking me down, and if he is, I’ll get straight back up. It’s going to be a war, I’m coming for war.”
It is also a tough fight for Darren Till. He is on a two-fight losing streak and needs a win here. It is a big risk moving up in weight and taking on a top-five opponent, but the Englishman is confident the risk will pay off.
“Losses and wins at the end of the career, they’re going to define me,” Till said. “So if my next fight is a loss, in ten years time when I retire, it will define me. I’m putting all my cards on the table once again, and taking the big name and the big fight. We’ll see if it pay off. It will pay off. Of course, it’ll pay off.”
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This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/14/2019.