Saturday’s UFC main event features a middleweight on the rise against one who’s had his fair share of struggles the past three years.
At UFC Fight Night 191, it will be nearly three years since Darren Till was submitted by Tyron Woodley in his bid for the welterweight title at UFC 228. Six months later, he became part of Jorge Masvidal’s “Fighter of the Year” highlight reel with a knockout loss in his home country.
Till (18-3-1 MMA, 6-3-1 UFC) returned to middleweight after that and beat Kelvin Gastelum, but in July 2020, he lost to Robert Whittaker and his progression at 185 pounds was halted. His two attempts to get back on track after that were derailed by injury, so he’ll be 14 months without a fight when he steps in the cage against Derek Brunson.
And in Brunson (22-7 MMA, 13-5 UFC), he gets an opponent who who has been on a charge with four straight wins since he lost to Israel Adesanya on Adesanya’s climb up the ladder to the middleweight title. Brunson was the underdog in all four of those wins over Kevin Holland, Edmen Shahbazyan, Ian Heinisch and Elias Theodorou – though the Theodorou fight practically was a pick’em.
Brunson almost certainly could find himself in middleweight title contention with a win over Till. Till needs a win just to remain relevant in the division, it would appear to some.
But we asked our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian Garcia, Nolan King and Danny Segura, via host John Morgan, just what’s at stake for Brunson – underdog again – and Till in the headliner in Las Vegas.
Check out their responses in the video above, or watch the full episode below.
What’s at stake for Derek Brunson vs. Darren Till at UFC Fight Night 191?