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Darren Till Mows Path to Stardom Through Donald Cerrone’s Dome

Here’s a big hot topic as of late: the UFC’s seeming lack of any prospective future superstars.
Ronda Rousey is gone and may or may not come back (she won’t be back). Jon Jones? He’s looking at some hard times spent on the sidelines after his second US…

Here’s a big hot topic as of late: the UFC’s seeming lack of any prospective future superstars.

Ronda Rousey is gone and may or may not come back (she won’t be back). Jon Jones? He’s looking at some hard times spent on the sidelines after his second USADA violation. Conor McGregor? Maybe he’ll be back to fight Tony Ferguson or someone else, or maybe he won’t; it’s not like he needs the money.

Where is the next McGregor, the big international star who becomes a bona fide drawing card across the globe? A glance at the UFC’s current roster reveals few candidates.

But, look, it’s not all hopeless. This is the same conversation we’ve had for over a decade. It happened when Georges St-Pierre went on hiatus. It happened when Chuck Liddell retired, and when Brock Lesnar retired, and when Tito Ortiz retired. A big star heads for greener pastures or a less-violent profession, and the hand-wringing about the sport being doomed starts all over again. Someone always comes along and picks up the mantle, and yet we’re always surprised when it happens.

But if you look a little closer, the rise of a star is almost always easy to predict because they typically have three traits in common: They can fight. They are media-savvy, with an innate understanding of using the press and promotional spots for their own good. And they understand that what’s truly important in the fight business is the business of the fight, even more so than the fight itself.

Which is why it’s easy to look at Darren Till and just say, man, this guy? He gets it.

Till went in the Octagon over in Poland on this fine Saturday and just absolutely, positively wrecked Donald Cerrone. He handed Cerrone his third straight loss, which is as rare of a thing in mixed martial arts as anything we’ve seen. And it wasn’t just the wrecking, but the way he went about it and the way he told us exactly what would happen before it ever started.

(NSFW: The following tweet contains profane language.)

Till walked Cerrone down and blasted him, without fear or trepidation—much the same way Cerrone used to do to people (and sometimes still does when he’s actually trying to fight with intelligence instead of counting the minutes until he can pick up his envelope at the pay window).

That was one trait. The second trait happened in the lead-up to the fight, when Till was everywhere telling the world exactly what he would do to Cerrone. Maybe it all seemed like so much bluster back then. Or maybe you didn’t know who Darren Till was or that he was an actual UFC main event fighter.

But then the media bluster turned into fact. Till did, in fact, obliterate Cerrone and made us question if Cowboy still has the chin and the gumption to keep doing the Cowboy thing. Without that performance in the Octagon, well, there’s only so long media bluster can hold up before fans start thinking they might’ve been sold a bill of goods.

The third trait really only works if you’ve been able to deliver on the first two parts. You can win fights all day, but if you can’t give an interview, there’s a certain limit to your potential stardom. And you can say ridiculous, non-sensical things until you’re blue in the face, but your limit is still something like, say, Artem Lobov.

But if you’ve got the charisma, the interview skills and the fighting down, then you’ve got a chance to use trait No. 3 to truly get yourself over. Which is exactly what Till did when he used his post-fight interview to set up a future fight with Mike Perry (also a brilliant promotional tactician).

If you’re one of those types who immediately started wondering why Till would target Perry instead of calling for someone higher up in the UFC rankings, well, you just don’t get it. And maybe you never have. The only real thing about the UFC’s rankings is just how embarrassing and devoid of reality they are. Seriously. They’re voted on by a panel of “media members,” but no member I’ve ever heard of knows anyone who actually votes on those panels.

The most important thing a fighter can do for himself is create fan interest in his fights. Like him or not—and there’s plenty of reasons to dislike him, starting with his ridiculous hair and clothing choices and moving along to the more serious matter of apparent racists inhabiting his corner on fight nights—Perry moves the needle.

And that’s what Till wants: a winnable fight that moves the needle. He can worry about the killers at the top of 170 later.

The whole thing should give you a little bit of hope for the UFC’s future. There may never be another Conor McGregor, and that’s both terrible and also good for our future. And while the UFC would no doubt love to have more Conor McGregors running around, you can be sure they’re very appreciative and enthused about the prospects of Darren Till right now.

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UFC Fight Night 118: The Real Winners and Losers from Gdansk, Poland

The UFC returned after a week off with Fight Night 118 in Gdansk, Poland, on Saturday. It was the most underwhelming card in one of the most underwhelming years in UFC history on paper, but in practice, it managed to overachieve by delivering some dece…

Officially, there were 11 winners and 11 losers, but unofficially, there is a lot more to combat sports than results.

That was obvious when it came to the show’s biggest winner, Darren Till. The 24-year-old Brit was thrown into deep waters by UFC matchmakers and told to sink or swim, with fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone tasked with drowning him. It was a tall order for Till, but he was more than prepared to seize his moment, pushing the pace early and scoring a first-round knockout via punches.

The flip side to this was co-main event loser Jodie Esquibel.

Making her official UFC debut after four years in Invicta FC, Esquibel was paired off with former title contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz. It was an amazing opportunity for the 31-year-old, who had the chance to jump directly into the title hunt with a win over the local favorite. Instead, Esquibel was beaten without incident and will be forced to fight her way through the thick swamp that is the middle of the strawweight division pack.

So who else won at UFC Gdansk? And who else lost? Read on to find out.

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Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone on Pace to Capture UFC’s All-Time Wins Record

The UFC’s all-time wins record might be a transitive beast for the next few weeks.
An odd wrinkle in the fight company’s upcoming schedule has all four of the fighters with the most career Octagon victories in action between now and Nov. 4. That run be…

The UFC’s all-time wins record might be a transitive beast for the next few weeks.

An odd wrinkle in the fight company’s upcoming schedule has all four of the fighters with the most career Octagon victories in action between now and Nov. 4. That run begins Saturday, when Donald Cerrone (19 UFC wins) takes on upstart Darren Till in the main event of UFC Fight Night 118.

If Cerrone beats Till, it’ll move him into a tie with middleweight champion Michael Bisping (20) as the winningest competitors in UFC history. Depending how it goes for Cerrone, it also gives him a chance to pad a few of his other already impressive UFC numbers:

On Oct. 28, Damien Maia (19 victories) can make it a three-way tie atop the wins leaderboard, as he takes on Colby Covington at UFC Fight Night 119.

As if that weren’t already enough, Bisping could retake the overall lead with a win over former welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre (19 wins) in that pair’s superfight at UFC 217 on Nov. 4.

If not? Then St-Pierre could make it a four-man logjam in the history books, with everybody possibly tied up at 20 wins apiece.

As you can see, this under-the-radar race to see who can win the most fights ever in the UFC is neck and neck.

The bad news for the field, however, is that Cerrone has the inside track to ultimately come out ahead.

Considering the breakneck pace at which he fights, The Cowboy is on pace to stand alone with the all-time wins record by the time he hangs up his gloves.

Cerrone has been the UFC’s resident wild man since arriving in the Octagon from the WEC in 2011. Since then, he’s set a torrid pace, fighting five times in 2011 and then four times each year from 2013 through 2016. Along the way, he’s won 12 of the organization’s performance-based fight-night bonuses while putting up an overall record of 19-6.

The Colorado native’s “work hard, play hard” ethos has made him so well-liked that Cerrone has created his own cottage industry inside the UFC. Though he’s fought once for the lightweight championship and consistently faces top competition, he exists on his own plane, outside the rat race of the UFC’s divisional title pictures.

Fans love Cerrone regardless if he’s winning or losing. They see his love for the sport and Clint Eastwood-style, down-for-whatever squint and latch onto it.

Now 34 years old, Cerrone knows his high-octane approach can’t go on forever. By his own estimation, he’ll be done before he turns 40.

“My three things that I really, really want, that I think the fight game needs, because I’m ending my career in three, four more years. I need some retirement,” Cerone said in late 2016, via MMAjunkie’s Mike Bohn and Ken Hathaway. “A pension. Some kind of health care. Those are three things I think the sport really needs, so that’s what I’m looking for.”

Even with that limited window, however, Cerrone likely still has the upper hand on Bisping, St-Pierre and Maia.

Maia is already 39 and almost certainly nearing the end of his career. While a couple years younger, both Bisping and St-Pierre have acknowledged they too won’t be around forever.

For St-Pierre, 36, this fight marks his return from his first extended hiatus from the sport. Following a hard-fought welterweight victory over Johny Hendricks in November 2013, GSP walked away from MMA, citing the various psychological pressures of being champion.

Now he’s back, but it remains unclear for how long.

Bisping, 38, has gone as far as to say UFC 217 might be his last fight.

“I think the career I’ve had, the years I’ve been in the UFC, the injuries I’ve had, the ups and downs, getting close to title fights and all of this, there’s a possibility—this might be my last ever fight,” Bisping said recently, via MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “I don’t know if I’ll fight again after this. So, what a way to go out if it is.”

In true Bisping fashion, however, The Count has also waffled on that point.

Regardless, it’s unlikely either Bisping or St-Pierre has anywhere near the number of fights left in the tank as Cerrone. Even if Cowboy plans to call it quits in a few years, it’s not unthinkable he might have dozen more fights planned, especially if he’s intent on building a nest egg for himself.

That means Cerrone is very likely to become the winningest fighter in UFC history by the time he’s all done.

Assuming that does happen, how long could Cerrone be reasonably assured of holding onto the record? That depends. There is a gaggle of other active fighters within striking distance of the all-time mark.

Anderson Silva (42) and Jim Miller (34) each have 17 UFC wins, and each has a fight coming up. Silva takes on Kelvin Gastelum on Nov. 25, and Miller fights Francisco Trinaldo on Oct. 28.

Jon Jones (30), Frankie Edgar (36), Rafael Dos Anjos (32), Gleison Tibau (34) and Diego Sanchez (35) all have 16 UFC wins. Edgar, Sanchez and Dos Anjos all have upcoming bouts scheduled, but Jones and Tibau are on the bench dealing with the fallout from failed drug tests.

Tibau is already serving a two-year ban handed down in early 2016.

Jones, who might be the most interesting case of the above group, still faces an uncertain future. The former light heavyweight champion might well already have the all-time wins record sewn up if he hadn’t spent significant periods of his career dealing with self-inflicted crises.

Jones has fought just once each year since 2014, and the worst-case scenario following his second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs has him staring down the possibility of a four-year suspension. Obviously, how that positive test is ultimately handled by the UFC will have a lot to do with Jones’ future.

Other active notables with a chance of catching Cerrone include men’s flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson (15 wins) and men’s featherweight champ Max Holloway (14). Both those guys are still very much in their athletic primes, but still far enough away that it would take a few years for them to catch up.

For now, we’re left to assume that Cerrone has the best shot to retire as the UFC’s iron man, and that would be a fitting accolade to cap the career of The Cowboy.

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McGregor vs. Malignaggi Will Be a Train Wreck That None of Us Can Turn Away From

Let’s say you’ve got a stray cat in your neighborhood.
You’ve seen the cat scrounging around your house and your neighbor’s house for food. You feel sorry for the cat and, one day, you decide to leave a little bowl of milk on the back porch. You watch …

Let’s say you’ve got a stray cat in your neighborhood.

You’ve seen the cat scrounging around your house and your neighbor’s house for food. You feel sorry for the cat and, one day, you decide to leave a little bowl of milk on the back porch. You watch dutifully from your kitchen window as the cat cautiously makes its way to the milk and laps it up.

The next day, you forget to put milk out, but the cat still comes around. You feed it again. The cat keeps coming back, every day, until you can’t get it to leave. You’re annoyed because you never wanted a cat in the first place.

Congratulations. You have adopted a cat.

Paulie Malignaggi is that cat. We let him around the house. We fed him. And now we’re tired of him, but he won’t leave.

Malignaggi, who perhaps became more famous as a short-term training partner of Conor McGregor than he ever did as a boxer, told Fight Hype on Monday night that over a potential McGregor boxing match:

“I know Al Haymon’s talking with Dana White. I know they’re speaking so if they want the fight, they’ll make it. You know, I don’t need to do all that because Al Haymon makes anything he wants happen, happen. The only way this doesn’t happen—once I spoke to Team Haymon and they told me they were on board to make this fight, I knew they only way it wouldn’t happen is if this guy doesn’t have absolutely any balls to make it.

“But this fight would pay him more, this fight would get him more exposure, this fight is a bigger fight than anything else he has. There’s no more [Floyd] Mayweather fight, this fight is the biggest fight there is. So once they told me that I said, ‘All right, the only way this doesn’t happen is if this guy has no balls—which wouldn’t surprise me because he has no balls—but what I’m saying is, the way they’re going to present it to him, it’s going to be presented in a way where he really shouldn’t turn it down.

“Even if it’s not the next fight, even if it’s an MMA fight in his next fight, there’s no way he should be walking away from this fight unless he has no balls.”

If this news surprises you one iota, you haven’t paid close attention to McGregor’s career arc. You really thought McGregor was itching to return to the UFC and defend his title against Tony Ferguson? Or that he cared one iota about his legacy in the UFC or about vanquishing the notion that he isn’t a real champion because a real champion defends his title?

Nah.

If it hasn’t become apparent by now, McGregor has historically cared about one thing: finding his way into the biggest money fight possible. He doesn’t care about defending his championships. He doesn’t care about the UFC. McGregor is a businessman at his core with a layer of a good fighter painted on top, and Malignaggi, like it or not, is the biggest money fight possible. That’s partially due to the beef between the two, but mostly it’s due to the fact that McGregor can make a whole lot more money in boxing than he can in mixed martial arts.

So, of course, this news just had to come out. It was a certainty. Even if the fight ultimately doesn’t come to fruition right now, it’s going to remain there, bubbling under the surface. A lot of that is because Malignaggi seized his moment after that whole training camp brouhaha, and he refused to let it die. Even while serving as a commentator for Showtime, Malignaggi was a pest, and he’s never really stopped doing his act. He knows a good thing when he sees one, especially when that good thing is the biggest payday of his career.

The good news from all of this is that if you loved the buildup to Mayweather vs. McGregor, well, this will be pretty much the same thing, except a whole lot more annoying. Malignaggi just has a way of getting under everyone’s skin, and I’m already dreading any official interactions between the two men. I have no desire to see the fight, but even more than that, I have no desire to hear either man talk to each other. Nothing good can come from it.

But I’ll still watch. I can sit here and tell you I won’t, but the truth of the matter is that I’m a sucker for wild, out-of-control fight buildup, even when I can only handle both parties in small doses. McGregor has proved to be at his best in small doses, and Malignaggi is best in no doses at all.

And yet, I know I’ll lap it all up. I imagine a lot of you are the same way.

And that’s OK. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, I don’t think. It’s something of a guilty pleasure, in a way, because maybe you’d rather be watching anything else instead of McGregor vs. Malignaggi, and yet you can’t avert your eyes, and you can’t avoid parting with your hard-earned money to see it.

And since eyeballs and money are McGregor’s sole ambition, well, maybe we should’ve seen this coming all along.

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Demetrious Johnson’s Armbar Was Crazy, but to Be GOAT He Needs New Challenges

Demetrious Johnson’s quest for history was finally realized Saturday at UFC 216.
As usual, he made it look easy.
Johnson systematically demolished the overmatched Ray Borg in their co-main event fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, securing a one-of-a…

Demetrious Johnson’s quest for history was finally realized Saturday at UFC 216.

As usual, he made it look easy.

Johnson systematically demolished the overmatched Ray Borg in their co-main event fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, securing a one-of-a-kind flying armbar three minutes, 15 seconds into the final round.

The win boosted Johnson past Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history, at 11, and reinvigorated the discussion about whether he may already be the greatest MMA fighter of all time.

As a cherry on top, Johnson also pulled off one of the most impressive finishing sequences ever seen in the Octagon.

With roughly three minutes gone in the fifth round, the champion slipped behind Borg and tossed him in the air as if trying to take him down with suplex. As Borg came back to earth, Johnson slung his legs over the challenger’s shoulders and locked up the arm bar.

Borg tried to fight through the pain and escape, but finally tapped out and conceded the win—and history—to Johnson.

“I’m not in the business of getting hit and taking concussions,” Johnson told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage when it was over. “That s–t’s way overrated, I’m telling you. I’m the business of getting in here and making a fool of you, throwing you in the air like a bag of potatoes, throwing you down between my legs and breaking your arm.”

We’ve never seen a fighter quite like Mighty Mouse in the UFC.

Johnson is too good for any other flyweight to handle. He’s so technically flawless, so well-rounded and so smooth that he’s made child’s play out of picking off the division’s top contenders one by one since winning the belt in 2012.

Johnson already has many observers convinced he’s the best to ever lace four-ounce gloves. If anything, however, his dominant performance against Borg—and the unorthodox way he ended the fight—only underscored the problem with his all-time great title reign.

Perhaps partly because he faces no close competition, Johnson has toiled in relative obscurity while surpassing Silva for sheer number of consecutive championship defenses.

As the Octagon’s smallest male titlist (5’3″, 125 lbs), he hasn’t connected with a large portion of the UFC audience. Hardcore fans celebrate his fights, but they typically fetch mediocre TV ratings and poor pay-per-view buyrates.

Even as he broke Silva’s record Saturday, Johnson did it as the co-main event in support of Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee’s scrap for the interim lightweight title.

If Johnson is ever going to convince his doubters he is the greatest and have a chance at locking down the popularity he deserves, he needs bigger challenges.

There has been talk that his next fight might be against the winner of the men’s bantamweight title bout between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw at UFC 217 next month. By all means, it’s time for the UFC to book—and for Johnson to accept—that fight.

If not Garbrandt or Dillashaw, perhaps a rematch with former 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz would be in order. It was Cruz, after all, who handed Johnson his most recent professional loss, back in 2011 when Mighty Mouse was still fighting at 135 pounds.

It’s time for Johnson to take on the biggest challenges he can find, even (maybe especially) if that means stepping outside the flyweight rat race. He’s outgrown it, and it’s time to book him in higher-profile matchups while he’s still in his athletic prime.

Even this victory over Borg seemed to come at a cost for Johnson, as it took longer than first planned for him to pass Silva on the all-time title-defense list.

Johnson and Borg were originally scheduled to square off at UFC 215 in September, but Borg withdrew during fight week due to medical reasons. The bout had to be rescheduled for four weeks later at UFC 216.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s relationship with the UFC appeared strained during the lead-up to this bout. He clashed with UFC President Dana White while trying to find an opponent. UFC brass wanted Johnson to fight Dillashaw, but the champion insisted on breaking the consecutive title-defense record against a bona fide member of the flyweight class.

Now that Borg has been dispatched, there’s no reason to put it off any longer.

Granted, 125-pound contenders Henry Cejudo and Sergio Pettis are scheduled to meet at UFC 218 on December 2. Barring an injury or other unforeseen complications, that bout will produce a worthy No. 1 contender in the flyweight division.

But Johnson just defeated Cejudo via first-round TKO in April 2016, and it seems impossible the 24-year-old Pettis could be ready to dethrone Johnson so early in his UFC career.

Either guy would be a fine next opponent for Johnson, but they lack the sizzle of a bout with Garbrandt or Dillashaw.

For now, Johnson has proved all he can by taking on the flyweight rank and file.

It’s high time he and the UFC put their heads together and figure out how he can go big.

Or bigger, at least.

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Tony Ferguson Sets Up Conor McGregor Title Fight, but Will We Ever See It?

The weird thing about UFC 216’s main event between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee?
The difficulty we had in figuring out the point of it.
On the surface, it’s easy: Ferguson and Lee are two really good lightweights. They’re two of the best in the division…

The weird thing about UFC 216‘s main event between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee?

The difficulty we had in figuring out the point of it.

On the surface, it’s easy: Ferguson and Lee are two really good lightweights. They’re two of the best in the division. Conor McGregor is the champion, but who knows if he’ll ever defend the belt or even fight again. Caught up in the stasis McGregor often leaves in his wake, Ferguson and Lee were the best options available for the UFC to try to keep the division moving along.

They were the last men standing.

And the interim lightweight title was up for grabs, which makes it seem important at first glance. Ferguson won it in dramatic fashion, using a sweet triangle choke after nearly ripping Lee’s arm from the socket.

But interim titles are a standard fallback for the UFC these days. They don’t really mean anything, and that’s because the real championships don’t mean much either. If they meant something, Demetrious Johnson would’ve been in Saturday night’s main event, setting the record for most consecutive UFC title defenses with an utter shellacking of Ray Borg.

That was a historic moment. A true accomplishment.

But instead of being in the main event, Johnson was relegated to supporting act for a title that isn’t even a real thing. And then he finished the very good and yet somehow still hapless Borg with a German suplex that he turned into an armbar in midair. It was literally the greatest submission I’ve ever seen, and one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in sports. But it wasn’t the main event. And that’s dumb.

Yeah, the interim title might just turn into the lightweight title down the road, which makes it feel kind of important. But really, it’s more like you’re getting a free meal size upgrade at your favorite fast food place. Conor McGregor is the lightweight champion (on paper, at least), and we’ve all seen what happens after he wins a championship. Max Holloway, for instance, was interim featherweight champion right up to the point when he wasn’t, when the UFC said some words and instantly made him the actual champion. The odds of the same thing happening at lightweight are pretty good, I’d say.

And maybe, then, this was the Battle to Decide Who Might Get to Face McGregor? Maybe that’s why it was elevated to main event status over Johnson: because it’s a chance to set up the next domino for McGregor, the undisputed biggest draw in UFC history and the man who will likely help WME-IMG decide next year if they’re happy they purchased this UFC thing, or if they made a huge mistake.

But let’s be real: Can you imagine McGregor being super enthused about the idea of facing Ferguson? T-Ferg is a dangerous opponent, and he’s a dangerous opponent without the ability to help boost McGregor’s pay far beyond the UFC norm. And then there was Ferguson’s post-fight callout of McGregor, which consisted largely of shouting expletives and calling McGregor “McNugget,” which is an insult better left on the cutting room floor.

Make no mistake about it: Ferguson was as deserving of this chance as it gets. He had a legitimate winning streak and had beaten some tough competition. Truth be told, he probably should’ve already been in this position at least once, if not twice. Lee? Well, maybe he wasn’t quite as deserving. But the Octagon is the ultimate decider, and Lee went in the cage and proved he belonged in that championship mix. He’s young, he’s brash, he’s got a hell of a personality, and he’s a very good fighter. He’ll be back, and hopefully next time he’ll be back without being accompanied by the staph infection that drained him this time around.

So, another UFC pay-per-view down. To tell you the truth, I still haven’t really recovered from McGregor vs. Mayweather. Nothing feels important. Nothing feels like it’s worth anticipating. We’ve got Georges St-Pierre returning next month to face the middleweight champion, and my anticipation meter is peaking at roughly six out of 10.

But that’s the modern UFC. Things are different these days. Instead of building up anticipation for a big fight that becomes a community gathering point, we’re force-fed an endless stream of fight cards filled with people we’ve never heard of. Everyone gets a championship, so long as it means the UFC gets to put the word “championship” on the fight poster.

And the real shame of it all is that guys like Tony Ferguson, questionable post-fight promo skills aside, aren’t given the spotlight or importance they should be.

Welcome to the new UFC.

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