As Liverpool native Darren Till prepares for his main event meeting this weekend with Robert Whittaker, Till isn’t counting on Whittaker’s chin being compromised after several brutal battles in consecutive contests. But he also understands it’s impossible for those kinds of fights not to take a toll over time.
“One big thing I’ve always known throughout my career, the wars take the toll on you, and whoever you are, you can see them taking the toll,” Till told MMA Fighting during the media day this week.
“No disrespect, but when you look at guys like Gaethje and I look at Holloway now, and sometimes I seem glimpses of them slurring a little bit cause of the wars they’ve been in. All respect to the wars, but it ain’t a smart choice when you’re fighting.”
“So I think them wars, they take the toll on you, and they do take the toll on your chin. I think anyone I touch anyway at middleweight, I found myself I’m going to hurt with that left hand but we’ll see.”
While Till has mostly avoided fights like Whittaker had with Romero in the past, Till isn’t running away from something like this, i.e. his fight with Jorge Masvidal.
That fight accelerated Till’s move to middleweight, but he knows the mistake made against Masvidal is one he absolutely cannot afford against someone like Robert Whittaker.
“Always stick to the game plan,” Till said about his strategy, “If only I had done it against Masvidal, I would probably be on the cover of EA Sports right now.”
“You can’t fight every fight [with] perfection, and it’s not like that. The fight game is certainly not like that, especially in MMA. That’s why it doesn’t matter who you’re fighting, they could have a big belly, you can never underestimate or overlook any fighter. I sort of overlooked Masvidal a bit because he was a bit tinier. I beat Stephen Thompson and Stephen Thompson beat him comfortably. Maybe I did. Maybe on my part I did [underestimate him], but you live and you learn.”
Darren Till certainly gives an interesting perespective about his mindset going into this massive fight.
What do you think? Is Darren Till taking a defensive approach for this fight the right move? How do you see this fight playing out?