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.
https://twitter.com/TeamFA/status/1000362772356567041
Till prides himself on his size advantage. Says his weight-cut should be illegal & calls himself 'The Gorilla' because he's built like one. So, not very surprising. It's just amazing how even when UFC does everything right promotionally, we still barely make it to fight day.
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 26, 2018
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.
Here’s a statement from Stephen Thompson’s father, Ray, who is also his head coach. “Stephen is a fighter and would NEVER want to disappoint the fans (short of illness) and came to fight …” (cont’d below) pic.twitter.com/o9igj3uTRl
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 26, 2018
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.
Thompson vs. Till is on. Here are the terms of the deal, per sources:
– Till must forfeit 30% of his purse and bonuses to Thompson.
– Till can’t weigh more than 188 lbs tomorrow.
– Weigh in is at 1 pm tomorrow before departing to arena.
– WB’s team can be present at weigh in.— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 26, 2018
If Till misses weight, another negotiation will have to happen but they will cross that bridge when they get there. News of the fight being finalized was first reported by @MMAjunkieJohn.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/1000378570471084032
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?
