Darren Till Reveals He Blew Out Knee in Second Round Against Robert Whittaker

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Darren Till wasn’t 100 percent for the majority of his five-round headlining bout at UFC on ESPN 14, but Robert Whittaker had more than a little something to do with that.

The Liverpool, England, native ultimately lost a closely-contested unanimous decision to the former middleweight champion in a tense bout where signature moments came at a premium. One of those arrived in the second round.

“I’m not the type [to make] excuses, but I have to give credit to Rob in the second round,” Till said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “He knee stomped me, like I did to Stephen Thompson. They should be illegal —It just blew my knee, like my knee just [blew] under me, crashed. That was it then for the whole fight. I just had to stay static and sort of just fight on it.

“I hid the pain even, I don’t think he recognized. But I was still in there. I’m not trying to sit here and say, ‘Oh me knee gone,’ whatever. Maybe it just stopped me bouncing a bit, but it was a real good fight. I feel like I won it. I feel like we both won the fight—I’m not saying I feel like I won it, it’s just we both won. It was a clinically great match.”

While judges Ben Cartlidge, Anders Ohlsson and Clemens Werner all submitted 48-47 tallies for Whittaker, media scorecards were split down the middle between “The Reaper” and Till. Ultimately, it was Whittaker’s ability to land with greater volume – including those aforementioned leg strikes – that made the difference.

Till thought the fight could have gone either way, and he remains confident in his ability to be a factor in the middleweight division down the road.

“Maybe I lacked a few things that we worked on in the gym and it’s a little bit disappointing. But I say this here convincingly, I am gonna be a champion,” Till said. “These are all just little walls that you face, but it’s not like I lost and I’m thinking, ‘Awwww.’ Either man could have won that fight tonight. I was the more powerful guy, I was landing the more powerful shots. Rob was the busier guy. That’s just sometimes how the fight is. Some judges could see the power shots in the fight, and other judges like tonight saw the busier fighter won the fight. I just thought we both won. He obviously won, but in my mind we both won.”

The more immediate future most likely involves surgery and rehabilitation for Till, but he won’t be lacking for options once he’s ready to return.

“Probably gonna get a little bit of surgery now,” he said. “That’s nothing. I want to get back in the gym. Fix that, get back in the gym, and there’s million fights out there for me, and I’m one of the top guys in this organization and I’m gonna continue to be.”