Darren Till admits he is loving life as a middleweight ahead of his co-main event clash with Kevlin Gastelum at UFC 244.
After back-to-back losses at welterweight, ‘The Gorilla’ decided it was time to move up to the 185lbs division and make his mark among the big boys.
At Madison Square Garden on November 2, the 26-year-old has an opportunity to make a statement and propel himself into title contention against Gastelum, whose interim title fight against Israel Adesanya cemented his reputation as one of the toughest operators in the company.
Images released from Till’s training camp in September left fans stunned and horrified in equal measure, with the 6”0 star looking incredibly brawny as he worked on the pads at his beloved Kaobon Gym on Alfred Street.
Under the tutelage of mentor and coach Colin Heron, fans speculated which sports scientists and what diet the duo had meticulously worked on ahead of their middleweight assault.
But, as Till himself explained to talkSPORT, the reality was far simpler than the fan theories suggested.
Speaking at the UFC’s new performance centre in Nottingham, the Scouser revealed he was able to make the middleweight limit by simply not cutting as much weight as he had done to get down to the 170lbs welterweight limit.
He said: “Instead of eating one cheeseburger I would eat two!
“I didn’t put much thought into it, I go to Colin for every piece of advice and I was always big for welterweight – I was probably walking round as a middleweight but fighting at welter.
“As I said, the changes were only little tweaks. I know Brian Ortega has changed up his whole camp and that’s probably best for him.
“But after people lose, like AJ lost to Ruiz, people were telling him to sack his trainer. Don’t get me started, it just f****** p****d me off.
“It’s like the grass is always greener on the other side and people are just so f****** disloyal and I’m not.
“As I’ve said from the start, I believe in my team and we win together, we lose together.
“So little small changes is what I think is needed in every fighter. All this ‘when you lose and that needs to be changed’. Maybe you need to change, maybe you’re the problem. You hear of some guys who have been around 10 different gyms in the last five years.
“In my eyes, they’re the problem and not the gyms. So only little things needed to be changed.”
Weight cutting in mixed martial arts is one of the most contentious issues is the sport, with fighters refusing to dehydrate their bodies to reach a certain goal and instead fight where they felt most comfortable.
Take the event in New York on November 2 for instance; Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz spent most of their early career competing as lightweights, while Gastelum himself jumped from welterweight up to middleweight and has looked a different beast.
For Till, cutting down to 170lbs was particularly draining and often left the Muay Thai practitioner in agonising pain before bouts – even going temporarily blind before UFC Liverpool.
So being able to keep weight on for the main event at the Garden is a welcome relief and has positively impacted on the fighters mood. And, as the old adage goes, a happy fighter is a dangerous fighter.
“I think there’s just like, a spring in my step,” he added. “So getting to this point now, I really wouldn’t want to be in the gym.
“Not because I don’t like it, but because of the weight cut. Because I know I would have to come on such low foods and then I would have no energy, but then I’d still have to go through a gruelling session.
“To explain it best, it’s like there’s a spring in my step. I’m eating well, I haven’t wanted to bulk up – I know I’ve got a bit bigger – but I wanted to stay around what I would walk around at for welterweight and then cut that down to middle.
“So I just think there’s a bit more of a spring in my step. There hasn’t been a day in this fight camp, or even before, where I’ve come not wanting to train because of past experiences.
“There’s days when you’re tired and you think ‘I’m going to have to get through this’ but it’s been for a different reason.
“Whereas the past four weight cuts have just all revolved around the weight and Colin has let off me a bit as well. Colin would be hard on me 24 hours a day, obviously because he wants me to make weight.
“But obviously I know what’s needed for fights and he knows I put the hours and the work in so Colin has just been letting me turn up and he knows I do my extras after every session so it is a little weight off my mind.”
