UFC veteran Michael Bisping wants Darren Till to win welterweight title… but not at the cost of starving himself blind
UFC legend Michael Bisping wants to see Darren Till win the welterweight title but not at the cost of starving himself blind. Liverpool’s 6ft welterweight faces Jorge Masvidal on Saturday at the O2, with a dream of following in Bisping’s footsteps and becoming a British UFC champ. At UFC 130 last May, Till went temporarily […]
UFC legend Michael Bisping wants to see Darren Till win the welterweight title but not at the cost of starving himself blind.
Liverpool’s 6ft welterweight faces Jorge Masvidal on Saturday at the O2, with a dream of following in Bisping’s footsteps and becoming a British UFC champ.
At UFC 130 last May, Till went temporarily blind boiling down to face Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson and lost 30 per cent of his purse for being 3.5lbs over for the points win.
A March defeat to then champ Tyson Woodley looked more healthy and he weighed in 171lbs for tonight’s action after stripping nude behind a towel.
UFC Gym owner Bisping told SunSport: “Darren has said the Woodley weight cut was really easy so maybe he should have one more at welterweight and see how it goes.
“If he has any problems then he will have no problem going up to middle because he is a similar size to me so would not be small once he packed some meat on.
“Then he would be enjoy his fight camps more and recover better.
“In my camps I felt great and explosive at the start but near the end, after all the dieting, you really are a lesser version of yourself.
“Let’s see how his next fight goes and see where he goes from there.”
Armchair fans slammed The Gorilla for risking his life sweating down and crawling out of the sauna, in a video released by his own team.
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UFC released a statement distancing themselves from the agonising toll Till went through but honest Bisping refused to condemn the hard man, having been through the torture himself.
He said: “It’s hard to answer the weight-cutting question because I started as a light-heavyweight and got down to middleweight.
“I was undersized for light-heavy but towards the end of my career I did look at myself in the mirror and say ‘Jesus Christ, what have I done to myself?’
“I felt so skinny and weak from all those training camps of training my heart out on very little food, it really takes a toll on the body.
“Having spoken to Darren on my podcast we agreed that a fight camp should be all about beating your opponent but instead it becomes about losing weight and that puts you at a massive disadvantage.”
The once invincible-looking Woodley lost his crown to Kamara Usman on March 2, giving Till a new scalp to target at 170lbs.
And Bisping insists the second-round Dallas defeat to future Hall of Famer Woodley will have helped prepare Till for a future reign of his own.
He said: “Darren is still young and lost to Woodley last time out but it is a tough sport where you cannot avoid fighting the best guys in the world.
“He will have learned from the Woodley defeat and will come back and be a star.”
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