Esther Lin/MMA Fighting
Darren Till has long proclaimed that there is only one man in the middleweight division who he wants no part of inside the Octagon, and that’s none other than former two-time title contender, Yoel Romero.
And it’s easy to see why some would rather look at other options before signing on the dotted line to face the Cuban-born wrestling machine, who also possess the knockout power to sleep the best of them.
But if you really have a heart-to-heart with Till and ask him to be serious for a moment, he will tell you that his alleged fear of “Soldier of God” is nothing more than a clever marketing ploy on his part, which is why he doesn’t pay any mind to Israel Adesanya labeling him a “pussy” for ducking Romero.
“It’s all good,” he said. “Of course…of course he’s keeping me close. We speak everyday, me and him, we message everyday. It’s all good,” said Till of Adesanya during a chat on Eurobash podcast (via MMA Fighting).
“You know Israel knows that I’m not scared of Yoel. He’s just doing that. He knows what he’s doing, and so do I. Look at the way I’ve marketed this whole thing now with Yoel and everything. (I’m a) f*ckin’ genius, you know what I mean?”
Till made a successful jump up to 185 pounds at UFC 244 last November, defeating Kelvin Gastelum via split decision. Romero, meanwhile, came up short in his second bid to claim the middleweight title at UFC 248, losing to Adesanya via unanimous decision in what proved to be a rather lackluster affair.
With Yoel ranked at No 4 on the officials UFC rankings, and Till close behind at No. 5, a fight between the two makes sense, though it will have to come after “Gorilla” handles his business with Robert Whittaker at UFC Dublin on Aug. 15.