Darren Till dubs Israel Adesanya’s UFC 253 performance an “utter masterclass” but vows he can defeat “Stylebender”

Darren Till praised Israel Adesanya’s showing against Paulo Costa while simultaneously declaring that he will beat the champion one day.

Adesanya was able to completely dominate Costa at UFC 253, retaining the UFC Middleweight Championship in the process. Till, on the other hand, will attempt to bounce back from his defeat to Robert Whittaker when he locks horns with divisional rival Jack Hermansson on December 5.

During a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Darren Till spoke about what the future could hold for him and “The Last Stylebender”.

“I know when the time comes I’m going to beat Israel Adesanya,” Till said. “Invite the hate, but (I) cannot take nothing away from that performance: utter masterclass, utter confidence. I can take inspiration from it even though we’re rivals. To be able to do that shows a level of maturity that I can do that. Costa just needs to come back, whatever he needs to do. But it was an utter masterclass.”

“I’m never going to hate him, or any other fighters,” Till added. “I like to think I’m smart enough to know anything they say or do doesn’t affect my feelings. I’m not really sensitive in that way. I can make jokes about myself, I can make jokes about me family. I’ve seen a tweet the other day like, ‘What’s the limit, what’s not the limit?’ For me, I don’t really see people talking about family or other stuff like that. It doesn’t affect me, but I can see how it disrespects other fighters. I’m not really one of them to just hate someone because they said something.

“We’re going to fight, whether they want to fight on the streets or the cage, it’s more sensible in the cage, but I’m not going to hate on that person,” Till continued. “I’m not going to hate on Izzy because he’s doing well or because he’s got this or he’s got that. I hate him for the fight. If we’re going to fight, yeah I’ll hate him. As a person, as a human being, if you’re a guy that’s hating, you’ve got some serious problems with yourself inside yourself. I can’t hate on anyone, I hate myself.”

UFC president Dana White, though, is looking ahead to what will be next up for Adesanya in an immediate sense.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t depend on what I want, it depends on what they want to do. Adesanya is a champ, he’s really coming into his own, and you can tell he knows this is his house, and he comes and acts like it,” White said. “I think he wants the winner of Whittaker and [Jared] Cannonier, and then we’ll see what happens after that.”

Do you think we’ll see Darren Till take on Israel Adesanya in the future?