Darren Till verbally agreed to fight Donald Cerrone as he was celebrating his UFC Rotterdam win over Bojan Velickovic with his friends in the fighter hotel.
Although “Cowboy” claimed he had never heard of the unbeaten Liverpudlian last week, the 24-year-old insisted that he did not feel disrespected by his comments on the latest edition of The MMA Hour.
While some prospects would see a date with the former title challenger as massive opportunity to impress, Till sees Cerrone as just another victory on his way to the top of the welterweight division.
“I wasn’t really intrigued,” Till told Ariel Helwani, when asked what appealed to him about the matchup.
“It’s just another guy in the welterweight division to go through. I don’t really care about his name I just want to go in there and knock him out.”
Cerrone is currently riding a two-fight losing streak, the first multi-fight skid of his career.
His consecutive defeats to two of the division’s elite competitors, Robbie Lawler and Jorge Masvidal, have some people concerned as to whether the 34-year-old is on the decline.
Till, on the other hand, claims it would have made no difference to him if Cerrone had been on a five-fight winning streak, he still would have every confidence that he could get the job done.
“I just don’t care. I doesn’t matter about Donald being on the decline or whatever. I cannot be beat in that division. I don’t care if he’s on a five-fight winning streak or a two-fight losing streak.
“It’s irrelevant to me. I’m going in there to take his face off and that’s the only thing I care about,” Till said.
Paddy Pimblett recently declared that Liverpool is the main hub for MMA in the UK. According to Till, he will ask the UFC to host an event in the city after he knocks Cerrone out in Gdansk next month.
“There definitely should be (a UFC event in Liverpool) because it should’ve happened years ago when my old training partners like Terry Etim and Paul Sass were fighting, but it never happened,” he said.
“I feel like I’m on of the faces of UK MMA now and when I knock Donald out and I ask for a fight at the Echo (Arena), it will be a sellout.
“Scousers, we travel in armies. I remember Dana White saying there isn’t a place like Ireland, but he hasn’t been to Liverpool yet, mate. If he does, he’s going to know that us scousers take it to another level.”
Till also shed some light on why he has been frequently using the gorilla emoji in his social media posts.
“People go on about how big I am for the welterweight division. The way I fight, it’s kind of like one-strike combination with what I throw.
“Gorillas are actually quite the same. They’ll hit and they’ll only hit you once, but when they hit you they’re going to kill you. I feel like in the welterweight division I’m a gorilla.
“I’m fighting a guy like Cerrone – he’s been a welterweight all his life. If we were in the jungle he’d be a chimpanzee and I’d be a gorilla.
“I’m 210 pounds, so I feel like I’m a gorilla…and I even look like a gorilla, so what better way to put a few emojis on Twitter.”
“If we were in the jungle he’d be a chimpanzee and I’d be a gorilla,” said Till.
Get the latest gear
