Darren Till has the opportunity to become a breakout star if he can upset popular veteran Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone when the two welterweights meet Saturday in the featured bout at a UFC Fight Night event in Gdansk, Poland.
Till is unbeaten in his four UFC appearances and relies heavily on his striking. In fact, Till is so confident in his standup game the Brit believes Cerrone, he of 18 career wins by knockout or TKO, will try to avoid trading strikes entirely.
“Donald Cerrone is going to take me down,” Till told Peter Carroll of MMAFighting.com. “He’s coming to take me down. He’s too old and fragile to be standing with a guy like me … I’m twice his size, how the [expletive] is he going to strike with me? He’s coming to take me down, that’s his game plan. I don’t fault him for that. He’s getting old and he’s twice my age. Do not stand with me, you will die.”
Till has the bravado of an unbeaten rising contender because that’s exactly what he is. The 24-year-old is 15-0-1 in mixed martial arts with nine of his 15 career victories coming by way of KO/TKO.
Till’s UFC opponents — Wendell de Oliveira, Nicolas Dalby, Jessin Ayari and Bojan Velickovic — aren’t anywhere near the calibre of fighter Cerrone is. Despite that, Till appears supremely confident in the stylistic matchup.
“Cerrone is the old generation and he’s fighting the new generation,” Till said. “He can say what he likes about him having more fights than me, but let’s get something straight — I’ve been fighting since I was 12 years old. I had my first professional fight when I was 15, so I’m no stranger to experience in fights. I’ve had my fair share and still, no one has been able to beat me in MMA. … It’s going to have to be a very special person that beats me and it ain’t Cerrone.”
Cerrone (32–9, 1 NC) admitted he didn’t know anything about Till when he agreed to the fight. That’s been Cerrone’s modus operandi throughout his career.
A true “anytime, anywhere” fighter.
After going 4-0 in 2016, Cerrone is 0-2 in 2017 coming off back-to-back losses to Jorge Masvidal in January and Robbie Lawler in July. The 34-year-old has a high-output, fan-friendly style, which has made him one of the most popular fighters in UFC history. It also leaves him susceptible to taking damage. Case in point: He has absorbed 216 total strikes in his past three fights all within the last calendar year.
“I’m not going to let him have any breaks. When I hit him I’m going to follow it up and I’m going to hurt him. I want to hurt him. That’s what I want to do,” Till added. “I want to put him in a world of pain, this is [expletive] fighting here.
“After the fight, we can shake hands and have a beer and it’s all good fun, but when we’re in that cage it’s time for pain. It’s time to win and I’m going to win.”
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