Darren Till says if Robert Whittaker doesn’t get the title shot, he’d love to rematch him in New Zealand

Darren Till entered tonight’s UFC Fight Island 3 headliner against Robert Whittaker with hopes of earning a middleweight shot.

Despite having gone just 1-2 over his past three Octagon appearances, the Liverpool native knew that a win over the former middleweight title holder in Whittaker would set himself up nicely for a second crack at UFC gold.

Still brimming with confidence from his victory over Kelvin Gastelum this past November. Darren Till was confident that he more in his striking arsenal when compared to Robert Whittaker.

That seemed to be the case in tonight’s opening round, as Till was able to drop the former champion with a standing elbow. However, Whittaker would rally back in round two and after closely contested rounds three and four, many fans and analysts had the fight pegged all square heading into round five.

In the fifth and final round it was Robert Whittaker who was able to secure a pair of late takedowns which seemingly earned him a unanimous decision victory over Darren Till from the judges in attendance.

While the Englishmen may be out for some time due to potential knee surgery, he is more than willing to run things back with Whittaker if given the opportunity.

Speaking at tonight’s post-fight press conference, Darren Till suggested that he would be willing to travel into enemy territory for a second fight with Robert Whittaker (via Helen Yee).

Darren Till says if Robert Whittaker doesn’t get the title shot, he’d love to go to New Zealand and fight Robert again #UFCFightIsland3 pic.twitter.com/03viUFtNkx

— Helen Yee (@HelenYeeSports) July 26, 2020

“If Rob doesn’t get a title shot, I’d love to go to New Zealand and fight Rob again.”

Robert Whittaker has now won ten of his past eleven Octagon appearances with his lone loss in that time coming to reigning middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya.

‘Stylebender’ is slated to clash with undefeated middleweight sensation Paulo Costa at UFC 253, so Whittaker’s future could remain unknown until that time.

As for Darren Till, ‘The Gorilla’ will now need some time off to recover from his grueling battle with ‘The Reaper’.

Having gone just 1-3 over his past four Octagon appearances, it will be interesting to see how the UFC decides to pit Till up against next.

Who would you like to see Darren Till fight in his next UFC appearance? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!

on July 25, 2020