Fans Panic For Till’s Job After Removal From Rankings Pool

Darren Till’s days on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster may be numbered.

The promotion’s updated rankings revealed earlier today (Tues., Feb. 28, 2023) that UFC Vegas 70’s big impromptu main event winner, Brendan Allen, had emerged in the Middleweight division’s Top 15, replacing Till. Shortly after, the famed Twitter bot account, UFC Roster Watch, tweeted out that Till had been removed from the fan rankings pool.

Typically when this happens it means one of several things. Generally, fighters are indeed released or have become free agents after runs with the promotion. In other cases, they’re removed from the pool for departing the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) pool (like Conor McGregor), retiring, or just taking brief breaks. An example of the latter would be Joanne Wood, who had a tweet published on her from the account, but is returning at UFC 286 on March 18, 2023.

There has yet to be any confirmation regarding whether or not Till is still a part of UFC’s roster or not, but fans have begun fearing the worst.

Till, 30, rose to fame in Oct. 2017 as an undefeated Welterweight talent, defeating Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via first-round technical knockout in his first UFC main event. One closely contested and somewhat controversial Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson unanimous decision win later, and Till was challenging for Welterweight gold at 17-0-1.

Unfortunately for “The Gorilla,” Till came up short in his attempt opposite Tyron Woodley, suffering a second-round submission (brabo choke) loss. He fought once more in the division after the loss, running into Jorge Masvida,l who knocked him out in round two with punches. Till has gone 1-3 since then at Middleweight and rides a three-fight losing streak, tasting defeat as recently as UFC 282 in Dec. 2022 against Dricus Du Plessis via third-round rear-naked choke submission (watch highlights).