UFC Liverpool’s Main Event Is In Jeopardy After Darren Till Missed Weight By 3.5 Pounds

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The UFC is headed to Liverpool for the first time on Sunday and a big reason why is local fighter Darren Till, who the promotion hopes may be the next superstar built off of regional support. Whether they’re right about him remains to be seen — Till loves to swang n’ bang and is pretty good at trash talking too, but only has one win over a top-15 ranked opponent (he knocked out Donald Cerrone in his last fight). His coming out party is also starting on a bit of a bad note: The Liverpool native missed weight by 3.5 pounds, putting his fight with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in jeopardy.

The UFC cited a legit “family emergency” as the reason behind Till’s blown weight cut, but Till is known for cutting a ridiculous amount of weight to maintain a size advantage, and some were questioning whether there were some Khabib-style tiramisu moments that led us here.

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For hours after the failed weigh-in, reporters waited patiently for the UFC to reveal whether terms had been met with Wonderboy to allow the fight to go on. The standard operating procedure is for the offending fighter to hand over a percentage of their fight purse to their opponent, but things tend to get a bit trickier in bigger fights because of the stakes.

Consider this: In all six cases this year where a fight goes on after one party misses weight, it’s the fighter that didn’t make weight that wins. It makes sense given that cutting weight is brutal on your body and those last few pounds take the biggest toll. At this point, it’s starting to look like missing weight is a strategic advantage. In the end, terms were reached to allow things to move forward … provided Till hits a new weight requirement on fight day.

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While the extra hoops make it less likely that Till will walk into the cage with an advantage due to his weigh-in fiasco, it’s also somewhat troubling. Weigh-ins are done the day before a fight to keep dehydrated fighters from increased risk of suffering brain damage. Now Till will be forced to re-hydrate up to 30 pounds of weight in the hours leading up to his fight. Isn’t it interesting how a system set up to make fights fair and safe end up doing the exact opposite?