London — UFC middleweight Darren Till remains a popular fighter in his native England.
So popular that multiple fans attending a Q&A with the fighter on Friday at London’s O2 Arena chose to ask when he’d be fighting for the title — despite being on a two-fight skid, and having lost four of his last five.
Till (18-4-1) was a little more realistic than his fan base, allowing that he’d need at least two wins before getting back in the title hunt. As to who he wants next, one name was on Till’s lips.
“Uriah Hall.”
Till then proceeded to lead the fans on a rather rousing chant involving his middleweight rival. “Can we perhaps, on the count of 1-2-3, just say ‘f*ck Uriah Hall?’ Can we do that?”
Needless to say, Till got the reaction he was looking for. Asked what Hall had done to deserve such treatment, Till replied “What have I done to deserve all the f*cking sh*t he’s given me on Twitter?”
It was clearly tongue-in-cheek for Till, who actually doesn’t seem all that bothered by much of anything these days. As to why he wants Hall next, it’s simple really. “Because he called me out,” Till explained. “I’ve never dodged any fight. I’m coming off two losses. The loss before last was to [Robert] Whittaker, the second best, if not, him and [Israel] Adesanya are the best middleweights on earth. I’ve never dodged a fight, I come up to middleweight and fought the two best middleweights at the time, [Kelvin] Gastelum and Whittaker. So if he wants to fight me, wants the same scale, I want him next. That’s how it is, right?”
Till revealed Thursday that his timeframe for a return is “two or three months,” and touched on his recent training with highly touted, undefeated prospect Khamzat Chimaev.
“I just think that, just now, [Chimaev] has this mentality that he’s unbeaten, and he’s got a goal and that. It’s like what I used to be a few years back, like that indestructible mentality,” Till explained when asked about Khamzat. “I just wanted to have a feel of it at the moment, and see where me and him were at. I think we’re going to push each other obviously.”
Till clarified that he’ll remain with England’s Team Kabon “forever and always,” but added that “it’s just good to get some new bodies in, and new, different types of training styles.”
Watch the full fan Q&A with Darren Till from the O2 Arena in London, England above.
