Darren Till tips scales at 187.3 pounds, UFC Liverpool bout with “Wonderboy” gets green light

Yesterday afternoon, Darren Till missed weight for his UFC Liverpool headlining showdown with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, tipping the scales 3.5 pounds above the welterweight limit of 171 pounds.

After a period of much confusion and speculation, we learned that the fight would go ahead as planned, so long as Till weighed in at less than 188 pounds at 1:00pm BST on Sunday. This, of course, meant that he would have to heavily control his rehydration process.

Initially, even Till seemed to doubt he’d be able to hit this mark.

“I missed weight, and I’m truly embarrassed by it, but the fight’s still on hopefully,” Till told MMAjunkie on Saturday. “I’ve got to weigh in again tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. I know they’re very adamant I’ve got to weigh a certain weight. The ball’s in their court.”

The good news is that when Till stepped onto the scale on Sunday afternoon in Liverpool, he weighed just below the 188-pound limit negotiated by Wonderboy’s camp, tipping the scales at 187.3 pounds. So, after an absolutely chaotic 24 hours that is sure to have significantly rattled both fighters, the UFC Liverpool main event is a go.

Media wasn’t allowed in the room when Darren Till weighed in, however, here’s a pic of the scale provided to me by a source who was in the room. As you can see, 187.3 pounds. Crisis averted. pic.twitter.com/c1mkXoncWw

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 27, 2018

While Till has received quite a bit of hate for his failure to make the welterweight division’s 170-pound limit on Saturday, UFC officials announced that his cut was interrupted by a family emergency. Till confirmed this news himself.

“There’s never no excuse for missing weight,” Till said of his weigh-in blunder. “I always say it: When you fight, and you lose a fight, there’s no excuse. You lose. Same with the battle with the scales. This time I lost, and there’s no excuse. I know that the UFC said why I missed and gave some information. When I started cutting weight I got an emergency call. It was a family matter. I just had to go to the hospital there and back. I only had five kilos [11 pounds] to go. Usually I have six, seven. I was running. I was OK. I was fine. And I tried to get in the sauna, tried to get in the steam, I tried to do a bath. It just wasn’t happening. I was knackered.”

Who do you think wins the UFC Liverpool Darren Till vs. Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson main event?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/26/2018.