There are surely only so many more times Darren Till can continue to do this to his body.
Till has made no secret of the fact that he endures one of the more significant weight cuts when he prepares to fight and, for the second time in the UFC, the Liverpool welterweight failed to make weight on Saturday morning.
A family emergency the night before he had to weigh in for the biggest fight of his career to date – a clash with former two-time 170lbs challenger Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson – meant that Till could only get as low as 174.5lbs.
Negotiations took place between the fighters’ managers and it was eventually agreed that the bout would go ahead as long as Till forfeited 30 per cent of his fight purse to Thompson.
“The thing is that I’m not one to make excuses. I missed weight,” Till said.
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“I can’t do anything about it. The night I was cutting weight, I had some problems I had to attend to, whilst cutting weight so I attended to them.
“But, listen, there are no fucking excuses for missing weight. I missed weight and it is what it is.”
Another stipulation required for the fight to get the green light meant that Till had to weigh no more than 188lbs at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
Before he got on the bus to the Echo Arena, ‘The Gorilla’ hit the target and the fight took place seven hours later, with Till claiming a razor-close unanimous decision over Thompson.
It was only after the fight that Till revealed the significant weight fluctuation that took place between Saturday and Sunday, explaining how he effectively had to cut weight twice.
“It was a challenge,” Till said. “I’ve got the type of body that, as soon as I missed weight and I started hydrating again, my weight just shot right back up.
“I think I went up to 88 kilos (194lbs) and I had to weigh in at 85.2 kilos (188lbs). That was the night before when I was going to bed.
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“Last night I had to starve myself and not drink anything. Then this morning, I went and trained. I went to the gym and did 45 minutes of hard training. This is how much I wanted the fight.
“I’ll say it again and I’m not going to stop saying it but there’s no excuse for missing weight. I’m truly ashamed by it. I don’t like it.
“I feel like my win could be a bit more right now if I’d made weight. I’m taking a bit off. Win, lose or draw, I’m still taking a bit off because I’m ashamed by it. I am a professional man.
“As I’ve said, I’m a big guy for the weight class and I’ve got to get it more under control.”
