UFC President Dana White reveals he tried to stop Darren Till from fighting Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244 in New York
Dana White has revealed he tried to stop Darren Till from facing Kelvin Gastelum in his middleweight debut, but the ‘Gorilla’ insisted.
And the UFC President has nothing but admiration for the courage shown by Till as he begins the next chapter of his career up at 185lbs.
UFC 244 promises to be one of the most stacked cards of the year, with fans learning the main event at Madison Square Garden on November 2 will be none other than Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal.
But fans will undoubtedly be intrigued to see how Till fares moving up a weight class after back –to-back defeats to Masvidal and Tyron Woodley at welterweight.
While the 26-year-old certainly looks in tremendous physical condition ahead of his move up in weight, he could have hardly picked a more daunting opponent in Gastelum, who took Israel Adesanya to the very depths in their interim middleweight title fight back in April.
And White told BT Sport he has nothing but admiration for the Liverpool-native.
“I said things in the press that I felt like we rushed that kid and here he goes,” he said. “He wants to fight Gastelum at a higher weight and I love it, I respect it.
“So we tried to talk him out of it, he wasn’t having it, that’s the fight he wanted and so we did it. Much respect to him.”
And when asked if his foe in November had any doubts, White received an equally succinct answer.
“No, Gastelum’s one of those guys that there’s never hesitation - he’ll fight anyone.”
The move up a weight class is a tried and tested method in MMA, with the aforementioned main event taking place at welterweight – despite both Diaz and Masvidal starting their professional careers as lightweights.
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And given how brutal Till’s weight cuts to 170lbs were and how devastating both of his previous two fights ended, a move up a division seems a natural route to take.
Considering Gastelum himself was also once a welterweight, it seems as though Till has the perfect fight to finally make a statement in this division.
White added: “And this might be one of those situations where maybe we didn’t rush him; he was at the wrong weight class.
“He was cutting too much weight and didn’t work for him. We’ve seen it happen for other fighters, so maybe that’s the case for Till.”
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