Darren Till On Tyson Fury And Being The Money Fight In UFC MW Division

Over the last month, Tyson Fury has caused a stir in the combat sport world by teasing of a move to the world of MMA in 2020. As well as calling out several UFC heavyweights and in return, being called out by the likes of Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, ‘The Gypsy King’ trained with Darren Till earlier this month.

Speaking to BT Sport (as transcribed by MMA Fighting), Till opened up on his training session with Fury, the conversation he had with him and the ‘shocking’ size of the lineal heavyweight boxing champion.

“Very big man. So big, shockingly. I’ve seen him before out and about, but even the posture when he’s in there, when he was in the Octagon with me, there’s a ring next door but…it was good. I had a terrific chat with him after we trained. I thought to myself, he’s going to come now, he’s going to learn a few techniques and that’s it. He said to me when we were starting, ‘I’ve come to train, you know?’

“I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’

“‘I’ve come to train hard.’

“I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s crack on.’ And I’d just fought. I told him he’s come to train, he’s gonna get some training. You’ve all seen the video of him cracking pads. I’m not a bad pad man, but obviously I went to coach Colin [Heron], I said, ‘What should I do?’ And Col was just like, ‘Get out of my face.’ But Col said, ‘Give him a proper training session. Make sure he knows.’

“I said ‘Tyson, I’m gonna teach you about what I think you need for MMA. If you’re considering this, I’ll teach you what I think you need.’

“So we started off with some warmups Coach Mike the wrestler always teaches us,” Till continued. “I got him involved in some sprawls and shadowboxing and we went into sparring pads. We done a hard hour, I swear we done a hard hour. And after, he was chatting to me about the mental side of things, what he went through, and stuff like that. I swear that guy’s got a rock solid mentality. Like, an unbelievable mentality.”

When asked what he thought the chances are that we see Fury transition to MMA in the future, Till stated that he was reasonably confident that we would. Adding that he would love to see it.

“I think it’s about a 70-30. 70 yeah, 30 no. We’ve got to remember boxing to MMA is very different as well. A lot of things, especially pay. He’s in WWE, he’s making a lot of money. He’s a top three heavyweight.

“I’d love to see it, I’d love to see it for the entertainment factor. He’d probably do well, whoever he gets, I don’t know. Maybe Stipe wants to fight, probably thinks that he could box him. I don’t think so, but I hope so. Maybe I’ll be on a little percentage of that, as Coach Till, get a contract in place. We’re the same management, we’re both MTK so no matter what I’m just supporting him, I’m supporting my team.”

Discussing his own future plans, Till said he’s the ‘money’ fight in the UFC middleweight champion right now and that he will be the one to choose his next opponent.

“Forget the champion. It’s me. They all know what they want. Maybe they’re all seeing it as easy money. Not a chance. Not a chance, mate.

“I’ll pick. I’ll just see who I want to fight because they’re all calling me out for a reason, so obviously I’m holding all the chips.”

Till is coming off an impressive middleweight debut, in which he beat Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244.

Who would you like to see Darren Till fight next?


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