{"id":699633,"date":"2026-05-28T15:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/699633\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:55:10","slug":"with-bkfc-next-darren-till-was-built-for-combat-sports-age-of-reinvention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/699633\/","title":{"rendered":"With BKFC next, Darren Till was built for combat sports’ age of reinvention"},"content":{"rendered":"

The clich\u00e9 says that \u201csometimes it\u2019s more about the journey than the destination,\u201d which is particularly true in the fight game. When a 42-year-old Benson Henderson showed up this past weekend in Brussels<\/a> to fight Patrick Habirora in the PFL, it felt as though his UFC title run belonged to a different lifetime. In reality that occurred in 2012, and I remember right around that time Henderson laying out his plan to be retired by the age of 33.<\/p>\n

Darren Till is 33 years old right now, and \u2014 as he gets set to take off the gloves and fight Aaron Chalmers in his bare-knuckle boxing debut at BKFC 90 \u2014 his journey has been a wild one. It feels like eons ago that he was stabbed in Liverpool, England, thus prompting a move to Brazil to pursue a career in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

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That, too, was in 2012, when Till was just 19 years old.<\/p>\n

Yet since he broke into the UFC against Wendell de Oliveira at a Fight Night in Goiania, Brazil, in 2015, we\u2019ve seen the many twists and turns of his career firsthand. There was the blue-chip prospect who went unbeaten in his first six UFC fights, poised to be the biggest thing to come out of Merseyside since John Conteh. Till, you might remember, was so highly regarded during that time that when Nicolas Dalby came back from being down rounds to force a draw against him in Ireland, it felt like a major upset.<\/p>\n

\"ROTTERDAM,<\/p>\n

Darren Till was once one of the UFC’s hottest up-and-coming stars.<\/p>\n

(Josh Hedges via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

We saw Till come up drastically short in his title shot against welterweight champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 228 in Dallas. Then there was the fallout. The knockout he endured against Jorge Masvidal in London, which kicked off Masvidal\u2019s magical year in 2019. There was the move up to middleweight, where he escaped with a labor-intensive victory over Kelvin Gastelum before running into \u201cBobby Knuckles,\u201d Robert Whittaker. Somewhere in there he turned into Keith Moon and destroyed a hotel room, followed by the submission losses to Derek Brunson and eventual champion Dricus du Plessis, and the ultimate departure from the UFC.<\/p>\n

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There were bad knees and beaming veneers and fatherhood. Then, finally, came the boxing ring, where he regained some of his footing in KSI\u2019s Misfits Boxing promotion, his last fight coming against former UFC champion Luke Rockhold. Till won the bout via third-round knockout.<\/a><\/p>\n

Through it all, Till has remained a draw in combat sports, in part because he speaks his mind. And in part because he\u2019s versatile enough to thrive in new environs.<\/p>\n

Still, just when it felt like the pillowy gloves were part of a larger redemption, he decided to take them off to fight in bare-knuckle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start, I thought it was brutal,\u201d Till says of his new venture. \u201cIt leaves your face scarred, a lot of scar tissue, and it really is a violent sport. But the more I toyed with the idea, the more I sat back and thought about it, the more I was just like, \u2018You know what? I feel like I’m a little bit tailor-made for this bare-knuckle anyway, because it suits the type of style I’ve always had, especially in MMA and stuff like that.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd when I looked at the roster and the guys [at BKFC], I’ll be honest, I didn’t see a lot of threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

BKFC president David Feldman was among those who began tempting Till to come \u201ctoe the line,\u201d as they say. From Till\u2019s perspective the timing was right because, as he relates, it was a struggle to get fights with Misfits, because not too many guys have been willing to sign the dotted line. Till says he dealt with a little \u201cburnout,\u201d but it helped that BKFC came correct with a hefty enough offer to make this adventure worthwhile.<\/p>\n

It’s a calculated risk, he says, given his tool set.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what? I got into boxing, Muay Thai when I was a kid, and I’ve tried me hand in everything,\u201d he says. \u201cI’ve been in MMA, I’ve fought a lot of the greats and then I’ve switched my hand over to boxing, not professional boxing, but the Misfits and stuff. So this is just another art form. I know it’s a more brutal, violent art form, but it’s just another art form. I do really enjoy the aspect of fighting, whatever art it is, whether it be boxing, mixed martial arts. I do enjoy challenges \u2014 and it’s a new challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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These days, to be a versatile free agent in combat sports is a boon. Last weekend in Egypt, kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven gave boxing heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk all he could handle<\/a> at the base of the pyramids. If Verhoeven didn\u2019t already break the bank in that first fight, where he was a massive underdog, he\u2019s about to<\/a>. A week prior to that, BKFC\u2019s Mike Perry took on Nate Diaz<\/a> in MVP MMA\u2019s debut on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Fighters with names and versatility have a lot of leverage right now.<\/p>\n

Till, who called both Diaz and Perry \u201cmongoloids\u201d on Uncrowned\u2019s \u201cThe Ariel Helwani Show\u201d last month, sees fighting as a Choose Your Own Adventure book at this point, with plenty of prizes available for prizefighters. He doesn\u2019t even rule out a return to MMA at some point, though it would require an extended break from action.<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/p>\n

Darren Till reignited his career with an undefeated run in Misfits Boxing.<\/p>\n

(Ben Roberts Photo via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to return to MMA, because I do love it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve had doctors look at my knees, and they’ve said they don’t even know how I\u2019m walking around, let alone still fighting. My knees are that bad. So if I was to do it, I’d have to get the surgery on my knees and that would take me, what, eight, nine months out? And then by the time I\u2019d be coming back, we\u2019re not even into a training camp yet. I\u2019d need a year of just pure grappling and getting back to me roots.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe door’s not 100% closed, but it would take a lot for me to come back. And especially with the pay in UFC, what am I coming back to? If I was to come back to the UFC, am I coming back to $50K\/$50K, where I’m getting much more in the Misfits and BKFC now. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, it’d have to be worth me time, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, it\u2019s the bare-knuckle gauntlet. Till has signed on for three fights, beginning with Aaron Chalmers (the reality TV star of \u201cGeordie Shore\u201d fame turned boxer). Eventually a run-in with Perry could be in the cards, as the \u201cKing of Violence\u201d has emerged as a marquee star in the broader world of combat sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think me and him are going to be clashing heads,\u201d Till says of Perry, \u201cit\u2019s coming to an arena near you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where it all leads is half the drama. It\u2019s not the destination, it\u2019s the journey, and Till\u2019s continues Saturday night in Birmingham, England, not quite 100 miles from where it all began in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just don’t take life too serious,\u201d Till says. \u201cI love the life I live. I sort of live life on the edge. I haven’t even got a stable home right now. I’m Airbnb wherever I go over there, over the world. And I’ve just been in Thailand, Cyprus. I was in Dubai. Now I’m back in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just live my life. I just love the life I live. My [four] daughters are all taken care of. I\u2019ve got a beautiful missus. I’ve got a beautiful coach, friends around me. So I just love the life I live. There’s nothing to complain about. It\u2019s not all about money yet, making good money, but I spend it as fast as I get it. I love taking care of people around me, and I love the life I live.\u201d<\/p>\n

After more than a decade in the fight game, to love the life you\u2019re leading might be destination enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The clich\u00e9 says that \u201csometimes it\u2019s more about the journey than the destination,\u201d which is particularly true in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[88411,80740,49,48,3136,641,7181,638,82,640],"class_list":["post-699633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-aaron-chalmers","tag-benson-henderson","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-darren-till","tag-fighting","tag-jorge-masvidal","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}