By Alex Best
Darren Till suffered his second professional mixed martial arts defeat to Jorge Masdival at UFC: London following a devastating knockout in the main event, which leaves him in an unclear situation.
Till’s previous fight was for the UFC welterweight championship against Tyron Woodley at UFC 228, where he was defeated in the second round. Since then, the welterweight division has changed drastically leaving Till’s position unclear.
Woodley lost the title to Kamaru Usman, which potentially sets up a fight between Woodley and former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington, whilst Till was hoping a win against Masvidal could set-up a potential title fight against the newly-crowned Nigerian champion.
Till will now have to look elsewhere for the future. Leon Edwards made it seven wins in a row in the co-main event against Gunnar Nelson, staking a claim to face his fellow countryman next.
Embed from Getty ImagesMany were calling for a fight between Darren Till and UFC newcomer Ben Askren before his loss to Masvidal. Askren attended the event in London and participated in a Twitter spat between the two within the build-up of the show as well as Till interrupting Askren’s fan Q&A with expletive gestures towards the American. However, with the loss to Masdival, a fight against an undefeated Ben Askren looks fairly unlikely.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnother option for Till is to move up to the middleweight division. There have been many talks about this in the past, with Till admitting he has to cut around 30 to 35 pounds for each fight, leaving him looking very skeletal at weigh-ins. Many could see moving up a weight-class being very beneficial for the Liverpudlian, where he wouldn’t need to cut as much weight, as well as physically being a far stronger competitor.
