Darren Till’s physique has forever been a topic of discussion among MMA fans and that remains the case ahead of his latest fight.
The Gorilla was the first fighter from Liverpool to really make a splash in the UFC and he even convinced the promotion to hold an event on Merseyside in 2018.
Four years on, poor form and several injuries have derailed Till’s MMA career which he hopes to get back on track when he takes on South African brawler Dricus du Plessis at UFC 282 on Saturday night.
In 2015, Till joined the UFC as a skinny welterweight who was able to make weight with just nine days’ notice for a debut fight against Wendell de Oliveira whom he knocked out inside two rounds.
As the scouse fighter moved through the 170lb ranks, with five wins and one draw in his first six UFC fights, it became apparent that he was one of the bigger guys in the division.
Till bragged about his size before beating Donald Cerrone in 2017, he said: "I ain’t no welterweight. I’m a light-heavyweight in the welterweight division.
“It should be illegal what I’m doing. The UFC should ban it but they can’t because I do it naturally and I do it professionally and no one can do a f***ing thing about it.”
However, Till’s words soon came back to haunt him when he came into his fight with Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson 3.5lbs overweight, and was forced to surrender 30 per cent of his purse.
Most read in MMA
He may not have made weight, but he did win a five-round decision against the former welterweight title contender in his home city.
It was made all the more impressive two years later when brutal footage of Till desperately trying to cut weight for the fight made its way to social media.
Regular sauna sessions, pad work whilst dehydrated and even napping in multiple layers saw Till lose 5.5lbs in one night before a family emergency forced him away.
When he returned at 5am the next morning to the Kaobon Gym in Liverpool, he was back on the treadmill but shortly after lost his vision and was having dizzy spells that derailed his weight cut.
The win over Thompson propelled Till into a title shot but he never looked the same again at welterweight and suffered back-to-back stoppage losses against Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal.
Till stuck up two middle fingers to his doubters as he posed on the scales ahead of a title fight with Woodley which ended in a second-round submission defeat before he again made weight, only to get knocked out by Masvidal.
The inevitable move up to middleweight came in 2019 and Till managed to pick up an impressive decision win over Kelvin Gastelum in his divisional debut.
Unfortunately, it’s been all downhill for Till since then as he suffered a nasty knee injury in his decision defeat to Robert Whittaker that kept him out for more than a year.
When he returned to face Derek Brunson in September 2021, the 18-4-1 fighter was noticeably out of shape and unsurprisingly slumped to a third-round submission loss.
Post-fight, Till revealed he was unable to properly prepare for the fight after suffering a serious knee injury during camp which he unwittingly tried to push through.
Ahead of UFC 282, he has been training in Thailand and, despite suffering a nasty eye injury, it seems to have gone well as he turned up to fight week in much better shape than last time.
“It was great. I’ve done the same thing now for a lot of years and I just wanted a change. In everything, scenery, food, people, training, and stuff like that,” Till told talkSPORT.
“I had a lot of good people around me, a lot of sick training partners. Like, a lot of unknowns who are from Russia and are just f***ing maulers, just killers.”
Till whipped out his abs for former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping who was impressed by what he saw from the man who hopes to follow in his footsteps.
Read More on talkSPORT
Seven years on from his UFC debut, Till has certainly undergone a massive body transformation.
Dropping back down to welterweight seems a tough ask at this point but he may have to consider it if things continue to go wrong at 185lbs this weekend.
ncG1vNJzZmiskaG4tLzOq6tnm5%2BifLS8zquraKWdlnxyfpZra2lvX5mus77Ep2StoZyherixyKCfrWWSpLG6edOrmKerlqS%2Frq3ToqanZaWbsG5%2Bl2tkn6GXncFw