Darren Till is walking into his BKFC debut this Saturday with a new deal, a new stage and a strong hint that his MMA days may already be behind him. The former UFC title challenger says he is 85 percent certain he is done with MMA, even though he once had plans to make an eventual return.
The timing matters because Till’s next fight is no longer a step on the way back to the cage. It looks more like a turn away from it. He has signed a multi-fight deal with BKFC and is preparing to fight bare-knuckle after previously saying he had little interest in making the move for a potential showdown against Mike Perry. Now he is here because, as he put it, the money in his bank account got a few zeroes in it, and BKFC boss David Feldman had been pushing the idea for a while.
Till, 33, says the appeal is as practical as it is personal. He describes himself as a boxing, punch-combination fighter who hits hard, and he says his big hands should translate well without gloves. He also says he has one of the men in his camp who has done 13 bare-knuckle fights, giving him some guidance before the jump. The former UFC contender has already boxed under the Misfits banner and said he has had his time in the UFC, framing this as the next chapter rather than a detour.
Even so, the move is not without risk in his own mind. Till says his only fear is getting hit and getting cut, which is the part of bare-knuckle fighting that kept him wary before the offer changed. He also said this kind of bout demands a different mentality, one he summed up as a “f*ck you” attitude, and added that bare-knuckle is the “ultimate art,” with the outcome able to go very well or very badly. That bluntness fits the shift in his career: the financial offer was strong enough to overcome doubts, and his focus has moved from whether he would ever return to the UFC to whether he is already done with MMA altogether.
There was a time when a UFC comeback still sat in the background. That no longer sounds like the plan Till is living. BKFC gets a former UFC title challenger with name value and a real chance to stay, while Till’s own words suggest this Saturday may be the first sign that his final MMA fight has already been left behind.
