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Darren Till was a close observer of the UFC 248 main event that saw Israel Adesanya defeat Yoel Romero in an underwhelming fight. Till, who is ranked #5 in the Middleweight division, is expected to return in the UFC Dublin card in August, with Jared Cannonier or Robert Whittaker being a possible opponent.
He's joked many times since UFC 244 about how he has no intention to fight Romero due to his scary reputation, but he was serious when weighing in on the main event at UFC 248.
Till said on MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast,
"I just think it was stale.I don’t think people expected it. People could say my last fight was stale, which it was, but I didn’t big it up or nothing - I sort of just went in there and got the win technically and then went home all happy with my new division, middleweight. But that fight was bigged up. Obviously, everyone has been on about how scary Yoel is. For the past few months, I’ve been making jokes about being scared of Yoel because he’s an animal and Izzy has been in these technical wars with Gastelum.”
Till gave them a pass, stating that it happens time and again. However, he admitted that there wasn't a lot that happened:
“Yoel looked dead heavy, he didn’t look as explosive. Izzy was sort of running away and stuff like that, but can always give them [a break] for one fight, you give them a bypass. That’s it really, there’s not a lot to comment on because there wasn’t a lot happening.”
It's going to be interesting to see how the Middleweight picture plays out in 2020. Israel Adesanya will face Paulo Costa next later in the year. As for Darren Till, he could still be a couple of wins away from a title shot. But to get a win over a scary Jared Cannonier or a determined Robert Whittaker will be one of Till's toughest career tests to date.
