Till Wants To Avoids Octagon ‘Wars’ To Prolong Career

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Darren Till will be entering the biggest middleweight fight of his MMA career tomorrow night (Sat., July 25, 2020) at UFC on ESPN 14 live on ESPN/ESPN+ from inside Flash Forum on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, when he takes on former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the main event.

While this is a massive opportunity for Till to win his second-straight fight at 185 pounds and put himself one step closer to another UFC title shot, fight fans shouldn’t expect a war this weekend on “Fight Island.” That’s because Till, who is one of the more technical strikers on the roster, is trying to avoid as much damage as possible inside of the Octagon.

After seeing the likes of Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway get into countless brawls over the past few years Till is hoping to take a different approach to his career moving forward.

“One big thing I’ve always known throughout my career, the wars take the toll on you, and whoever you are, you can see them taking the toll,” said Till during UFC on ESPN 14’s virtual media day.

“No disrespect, but when you look at guys like Justin Gaethje, and I look at Max Holloway now, and sometimes I seem glimpses of them slurring a little bit cause of the wars they’ve been in. All respect to the wars, but it ain’t a smart choice when you’re fighting.”

Till, 27, has only been competing professionally since 2013. He also only has one knockout loss on his resume, which came at the devastating hands of Jorge Masvidal early last year. Needless to say, “Gorilla” has a pretty clean slate when it comes to avoiding damage and prolonging his MMA career as much as possible. When it’s all said and done, Till is hoping to follow in the footsteps of legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and keep his mind and body in tact for the longest career possible.

“You want to sort of look in the direction of someone like Floyd Mayweather,” Till explained. “Someone like that. He’s 40-plus [years old], whatever he is now, and he’s got all his brain cells because he hardly got hit.

“So I think them wars, they take the toll on you, and they do take the toll on your chin. I think anyone I touch anyway at middleweight, I found myself I’m going to hurt with that left hand but we’ll see.”

While Till is thinking about his fighting future as a whole the former UFC welterweight title challenger is not overlooking his main event clash with Whittaker by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, Till is aiming to fight smart and stick to his gameplan no matter what happens, which has plagued the Englishman in big spots in the past.

“Always stick to the game plan,” Till said about his strategy for UFC on ESPN 14 this weekend. “If only I had done it against Masvidal, I would probably be on the cover of EA Sports right now.

“You can’t fight every fight [with] perfection, and it’s not like that. The fight game is certainly not like that, especially in MMA. That’s why it doesn’t matter who you’re fighting, they could have a big belly, you can never underestimate or overlook any fighter. I sort of overlooked Masvidal a bit because he was a bit tinier. I beat Stephen Thompson, and Stephen Thompson beat him comfortably. Maybe I did. Maybe on my part I did [underestimate him], but you live and you learn.”

With a sound gameplan to follow and new goals to meet as a member of the UFC’s middleweight division Till is hoping to cash in with a memorable finish this weekend against “Bobby Knuckles.” It’s going to be easier said than done considering Whittaker has only lost to Israel Adesanya at 185 pounds, but Till’s size and skill on the feet should give him a good shot at the win.

“Me knocking him out hopefully,” Till said when asked to predict his upcoming bout with Whittaker. “I don’t ever imagine him knocking me out. That’s it. I imagine myself knocking him out hopefully.”

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC on ESPN 14 fight card this weekend RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+/ESPN “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN+/ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.

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