UFC: Darren Till Is Confident He Can Hand Israel Adesanya His First Loss
Former UFC welterweight title challenger Darren Till believes that he will be a good matchup against reigning UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya.
After a two-fight skid at welterweight, Till moved up to middleweight last November and bagged a split decision win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244. The win saw the British fighter jump straight into the top five of the UFC middleweight rankings.
Speaking on the Michael Bisping’s podcast Believe You, Me, the surging middleweight gave his honest opinion on Adesanya’s lacklustre fight with Yoel Romero at UFC 248 (as transcribed by BJPenn.com).
“Adesanya’s a p***y. You know what mate, yeah I’m just going to come out and say it, it was a s*** fight. But I’ve been in them myself, stalemate. I don’t think Yoel and ‘Stylebender’ were the right match for each other, the way that fight was looking.
“You could say ‘Stylebender’ looked scared and you could say Yoel was doing some stupid things, which he was. You know what mate, it was just a snoozer. It just didn’t do anything for the fans, didn’t do anything for me. But then, ‘Stylebender’s’ been in wars and so has Yoel so you can’t really hate on them for one fight, but it was a s*** fight.”
And whilst no one has figured a way to beat Adesanya in MMA yet, Till is confident that he’s the man to hand the UFC middleweight champ his first loss.
“I feel like at welterweight, I was just so drained. It got to a point where it was just draining my whole body, my brain and everything. I feel now, with this little bit of an improved mindset, I already had a strong one, and healthier at middleweight, I think I’ll just be too much for ‘Stylebender’. I think I’ve got too much power, and I think I’ll be technically standing up too much for him. I really do, he’s not taking me down. And you know, I’ve got this mentality when you take me down I’m getting back up.”
Till will face former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker this August in the UFC Dublin main event. With a win there, Till might be looking at a title shot end of this year or early 2021.
Adesanya and Till have both said that have a lot of banter and message each other regularly. Just this week, Israel posted this hilarious video that Darren slipped into his DMs.
How do you think a fight between Israel Adesanya and Darren Till goes down?
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