LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White was impressed by Darren Till despite another setback.
Till (18-5-1 MMA, 6-5-1 UFC) was submitted in Round 3 by Dricus Du Plessis (18-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in their middleweight bout this past Saturday at UFC 282. Their entertaining back-and-forth battle earned Fight of Night.
Du Plessis stormed Till right off the bat and was close to getting the stoppage in Round 1. But Till weathered the early storm and turned things around in Round 2 before Du Plessis caught second wind and submitted him in Round 3. Till, a former welterweight title challenger, is now 1-5 in his past six fights, but White doesn’t think the loss impacts him that much.
“I mean, that’s Fight of the Night, I don’t think his stock drops at all,” White said at the UFC 282 post-fight news conference. “If he would have went out there and got destroyed in the first round like it looked like it was gonna happen, but he did the exact opposite. He weathered that storm, stayed out of submissions, then he comes back, and you think he’s gonna win the fight.
“I thought it was an awesome fight. That’s why it was Fight of the Night, and I don’t think his stock dropped at all. And for Du Plessis, what an incredible win for him. I think that that slam at the end, I think that took the life out of Till. I mean, did you hear that when they hit the ground? That was brutal. I think that’s what ended the fight more than the choke.
Till released a statement after the fight saying that he’d like to take some time off. The 29-year-old did clarify that he had no intentions of retiring but is discouraged with his current losing skid.
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