Darren Till suffers knee injury against Robert Whittaker, expects to undergo surgery

Darren Till went to battle last night against Robert Whittaker. The fight was a technical striking match that went all five rounds.  The judges scored the fight 48-47 across the board in Whittaker’s favor.

Till left the fight bruised-up but with no significant damage. 

During the post-fight press conference, Till admitted the suffered a knee injury and will most likely need surgery. 

“I don’t like to sit here and I’m not the type [to make] excuses, but I have to give credit to Rob in the second round,” Till said when asked if there were issues with his leg. “He knee stomped me, like I did to Stephen Thompson—They should be illegal (laughs)—It just blew my knee, like my knee just went *pwooo* under me, crashed. That was it then for the whole fight. I just had to stay static and sort of just fight on it.

“I hid the pain even, I don’t think he recognized. But I was still in there. I’m not trying to sit here and say, ‘Oh me knee gone,’ whatever. Maybe it just stopped me bouncing a bit, but it was a real good fight. I feel like I won it. I feel like we both won the fight—I’m not saying I feel like I won it, it’s just we both won. It was a clinically great match.”

When asked how severe the injury was, Till couldn’t speak on the severity but expects to undergo surgery.

“Probably gonna get a little bit of surgery now,” he said. “That’s nothing. I want to get back in the gym. Fix that, get back in the gym, and there’s million of fights out there for me, and I’m one of the top guys in this organization and I’m gonna continue to be.”

The loss to Whittaker marked Till’s first loss at middleweight. Till feels this is his weight class and believes there are several options at middleweight. 

“There’s a few fights there,” Till said. “If Rob doesn’t get a title shot, I’d love to go to New Zealand and fight Rob again. I really enjoyed the fight with him. I was fit for five rounds. That’s all thanks to my coach Colin and my team and my family and my close friends. Colin gets me ready for every fight and I was ready for this fight.

“Maybe I lacked a few things that we worked on in the gym and it’s a little bit disappointing. But I say this here convincingly, I am gonna be a champion. These are all just little walls that you face, but it’s not like I lost and I’m thinking, ‘Awwww.’ Either man could have won that fight tonight. I was the guy, I was the more powerful guy, I was landing the more powerful shots, Rob was the busier guy. That’s just sometimes how the fight is. Some judges could see the power shots in the fight, and other judges like tonight saw the busier fighter won the fight. I just thought we both won. He obviously won, but in my mind we both won.”