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At one point in time, Darren Till was regarded as a future UFC world champion. Upon signing with the promotion, 'The Gorilla' embarked on an unbeaten run in the UFC welterweight division. Tall and long, Darren Till's size worked to his advantage as he forged himself into a rangy counter-striker.
After Till bested Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson in a striking contest, all anyone could think of was for 'The Gorilla' to acquire strong anti-wrestling skills. Unfortunately, the Englishman's attempts at capturing championship gold went up in flames. In the second round, Till was knocked down and choked out by the then reigning welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
Darren Till could do nothing but look on as 'The Chosen One' celebrated his third title defense. After suffering the first loss of his career, Till was dealt a second blow after getting knocked out by Jorge Masvidal in his subsequent bout. With back-to-back losses at welterweight, Till made his return to middleweight, a weight class he hadn't competed in since 2014.
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He faced Kelvin Gastelum and used his clinch game to smother his foe's offense en route to claiming a split-decision win. Alas, Till suffered two back-to-back losses in the following bouts and went from being an undefeated fighter to losing four out of five fights. Thus, the initial predictions heralding Darren Till as a future UFC champion seem like a distant memory. While Michael Bisping recently said otherwise, this list goes over five reasons why Till might never win a title in the UFC.
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#5. Darren Till's size for his weightclass
Currently, Darren Till fights in the middleweight division. Standing at exactly 6 feet tall with a reach of 74.5 inches, Till is undersized in a weight class where the reigning champion Israel Adesanya is 6 feet 4 inches in height. Till's last appearance inside the octagon was against Derek Brunson. Too small to contend with Brunson's size and strength, 'The Gorilla' was outwrestled and eventually submitted in the third round. While Till is only one inch shorter than Brunson, his frame is narrower and thinner.
Without a large enough frame to compete at middleweight, Darren Till not only lacks the strength to contend with the division's elite, but given his comparatively shorter reach and height, he won't be able to implement a rangy striking game against more technical strikers like Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira who have a significant reach advantage over him.
However, should Till decide on a welterweight return, he'd find his size an obstacle that didn't exist in his initial run through the division. Over the years, his frame has widened and thickened. He can no longer cut down to 170 lbs without reaching a point of diminishing returns and negatively impacting his cardio, durability and overall strength. Thus, Darren Till is in no man's land.
#4. Darren Till is a low-volume striker
In the welterweight division, Darren Till was a different fighter altogether. He retained his absurd speed advantage over all his opponents while simultaneously being large enough to land with devastating punching power. As a low-volume striker, these two traits maximized his ability to knock out fighters without requiring him to increase the volume of strikes that he throws.
However, as a middleweight, Till is in no man's land. His speed remains an advantage due to his ascension from a smaller weight class. Unfortunately, he's unable to consistently hurt his opponents due to the discrepancy in thickness and width between him and his middleweight opponents. The only middleweights he's managed to stun are Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson, who are both exceptionally vulnerable.
Whittaker is a former welterweight who doesn't possess the best chin. Furthermore, he historically struggles against opponents who stand on the outside and don't allow him to stutter-step into crisp boxing combinations, causing him to lunge forward. It's what lost him the bouts against Israel Adesanya and Stephen Thompson, and what led to his struggles against a decidedly lesser striker in Darren Till.
Brunson, by contrast, doesn't possess the greatest chin either, least of all because he often charges recklessly into exchanges, tilting his head far back until his chin is hyper-exposed to counters. Even then, Till failed to hurt them consistently due to his habit of throwing strikes at a low volume.
#3. His clinch work and defensive grappling aren't very effective
Due to his base as a Muay Thai fighter, Darren Till is a competent user of the clinch. He possesses a decent arsenal of elbows off the break, but most of his clinch work is done in an effort to neutralize his opponent's offense by smothering their punches. Till's clinch work relies on his height and reach to enable him to generate the kind of leverage to truly bully his foes.
At middleweight, he's not large enough to do this against anyone other than Kelvin Gastelum, against whom Till still struggled. His other opponents were either too strong or long to allow him to close the distance to smother their punches. If he has serious championship aspirations, he will find it incredibly difficult to get within range of the taller end of middleweights who hover around the championship belt like Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira.
At welterweight, his prospects are even worse as the clinch is an open invitation for Till to be outwrestled due to the influx of skilled wrestlers at 170 lbs. Darren Till's anti-wrestling is fairly antiquated. He immediately digs for underhooks to control his opponent's posture while he explodes his hips back. This only works to stop a takedown, but 'The Gorilla' does not disengage from grappling sequences. This is what led to him being outwrestled by Derek Brunson.
While middleweight is devoid of many elite wrestlers, welterweight is teeming with them, as fighters like Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman, Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Brady, Shavkat Rakhmonov and Belal Muhammad would make him pay with much higher-level wrestling as Till has only ever had to fend off takedowns from Tyron Woodley and Kelvin Gastelum, neither of whom have wrestled consistently in the cage in years nor possess any chain wrestling.
#2. He is prone to injury
There is no greater problem for Darren Till at the moment than his recent streak of misfortune with injuries. The one-time title challenger has been injured several times in the last few years. Till's last appearance inside the octagon came against Derek Brunson at UFC Fight Night 191. The outing was a lopsided loss for the Englishman and fans have not seen him fight since due to an undisclosed injury, forcing him to withdraw from a bout with Jack Hermansson earlier this year.
Before his loss to Brunson, 'The Gorilla' withdrew from a matchup with Marvin Vettori, citing a broken collarbone. Prior to the canceled bout with Marvin Vettori, Till was scheduled to face Jack Hermansson in what was the first of two attempts to book a fight between them. Alas, 'The Gorilla' was unable to make it to either of the fights due to various injuries. The number of injuries Darren Till has accumulated throughout the years is worrisome.
Not only are they keeping him from amassing valuable time inside the octagon to shake off the cage rust, but they're rendering him inactive and unable to train consistently while both the welterweight and middleweight divisions fighters continue to grow more skillful. Till, unfortunately, remains the same fighter while everyone else evolves.
#1. His out of cage troubles
While Darren Till hasn't completely engaged in outlandish behavior, the stories told of the Englishman's antics outside the cage can't positively influence his career as a fighter. Till was recently arrested in Sweden for driving under the influence of alcohol. Prior to that, former UFC middleweight champion and fellow countryman Michael Bisping recounted an alarming ordeal involving both 'The Gorilla' and Khamzat Chimaev.
Bisping claimed to have taken part in a harrowing car ride with both men. Apparently, the incident involved speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, dodging traffic, and even performing donuts while missing the fuel pump by an inch. A few years earlier, Darren Till was arrested on the Canary Islands for wrecking a hotel room and stealing a taxi before being arrested for his reckless behavior.
If this is indicative of how Till behaves when he's not training for a fight, it comes as no surprise that he looked softer and chunkier than usual when he faced Derek Brunson. Till does not seem to take his training, dieting and discipline seriously. Like Conor McGregor, his uptick in troubles outside the octagon coincided with a downswing in the cage. Perhaps that is why the two of them seem farther away from capturing UFC gold than ever before.
