Fair play to ‘Wonderboy’.
Stephen Thompson would have been well within his rights to turn down the fight with a significantly overweight Darren Till in the main event of UFC Liverpool.
The dramatic early weigh-in ceremony on Saturday morning plunged the headline fight into jeopardy after Till missed the welterweight limit.
Till showed up 20 minutes after the deadline of the weigh-in window, after a family emergency delayed him, and he tipped the scales at 174.5lbs.
Two hours earlier, Thompson needed the help of a towel to reach the 171lbs limit and credit to him because in enemy territory and at a significant size disadvantage, ‘Wonderboy’ didn’t take the easy way out.
Darren Till weighs in at 174.5lb. #UFCLiverpool pic.twitter.com/fNMaH5N5Ks
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) May 26, 2018
Thompson admirably agreed to go ahead with the fight after his management team negotiated some stipulations with the UFC.
Till must weigh no more than 188lbs at 1pm tomorrow for the fight to go ahead, while the Liverpool fighter will also have to forfeit 30 per cent of his fight purse to ‘Wonderboy’.
On Friday, Till admitted to JOE that he was facing a significant weight cut and given his struggle to make 170lbs the next day, one can’t see him hanging around this weight class for too much longer.
