Per Haljestam-USA TODAY Sports
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight No. 1 title contender, Darren Till, proved he could hang with the top dogs at 185 pounds after defeating Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC 244 pay-per-view (PPV) event last November in New York.
The victory was good enough to land “The Gorilla” at No. 5 in the division rankings, sandwiched between Jared Cannonier (No. 4) and Jack Hermansson (No. 6), so with “Killa Gorilla” already booked, it would make sense to pair Till with “The Joker.”
Or not.
“We’ve been talking to him and bouncing around with different opponents,” promotion president, Dana White, told The Mac Life. “We’ll have something for him very soon. It’ll either be London or Vegas. Probably not (against Hermansson). We’ll see how this thing plays out. One of the top guys.”
Till (18-2-1) was undefeated at welterweight and considered the future of the 170-pound division. Then came high-profile losses to both Tyron Woodley (submission) and Jorge Masvidal (technical knockout) in a weight class ill-suited for his large frame.
Healthy and motivated at middleweight, Till appears open to continue his march toward the 185-pound strap, even if it means going through Yoel Romero, so it will be interesting to see which “top guy” draws the short straw later this spring.