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For all the possible fights out there for Darren Till, the one-time UFC title challenger rarely escapes any appearance without being asked about a potential showdown against Mike Perry.
The fighters have engaged in a public war of words through interviews and social media yet Till and Perry still have never been scheduled to face each other. Till hopes to change that narrative in the near future, but admits there are still a few details that have to get ironed out before he can throw down with Perry in the ring.
“I think we both do want to fight each other,” Till told MMA Fighting. “His manager’s having a little c*ck off with me at the moment. Malki [Kawa] sort your shit out, mate, you little crab. I’d love for it to happen. I think it’s going to happen at some point because we’re both there all the time. He’s got his promotion, they offered me some money to fight. It’s good money to be fair. Was it enough? I don’t know.
“I’d love to fight him towards the end of this year, we can make it happen. We’ve got to get the weight right and stuff like that because I am the bigger guy. He knows that.”
Till has history with Perry beyond just their verbal altercations because they have sparred together in the past.
That might explain some of the additional animosity, because Till says he definitely get the better of those exchanges and that might still be eating away at Perry.
“I’ve never really talked about our sparring but he likes to talk about sparring. I punched him from pillar to post,” Till said. “What’s he on about? I’d love to fight him, I really would and he’s a good guy. He’s a family man. He’s made a lot of money. I’m not a hater. I’m happy for the guy.”
When the conversation first started about booking the fight, Perry revealed that his promoters at BKFC made Till a lucrative offer to take off the gloves and face him in bare-knuckle.
As much as he wants the fight, Till fully admits that throwing down with Perry in bare-knuckle isn’t something all that interesting to him. However, he’ll make that concession under one condition.
“Look, I’m 32, I’m half a good looking person,” Till said. “I’m good looking, I wouldn’t like to do the bare-knuckle. Not because I’m scared of that, mate. I’ve had many fist fights. My nose is scarred from the other month, I had a fight in Liverpool on the street, which was a very unnecessary fight. That doesn’t mean I caused it, I was just in the middle of it. I’m not really too asked about bare-knuckle, but I just don’t want my face getting smashed up.
“But if we have a fight in boxing, when I knock him out in boxing—obviously, I’ll knock him out—we do it in the bare-knuckle. I just don’t want my faced getting smashed. I’d have to be good with the defense work.”
The two-fight offer from Till means he would engage Perry in both boxing and bare-knuckle fighting, but what about the sport that made them both famous?
Long before Till was preparing for a boxing match against Darren Stewart at Misfits Boxing 21, and Perry became undeniably the biggest star in BKFC, they were both mainstays on the UFC roster.
They’ve both moved onto new endeavors but Till hasn’t forgotten about his roots in MMA, especially because the fans won’t let him.
“I want to tell you one thing, I’m not a very out there guy, I don’t attend shows, I’m very quiet,” Till said. “People don’t get it, I’m f*cking very quiet. I’d rather just stay in the house. I get bad social anxiety but I don’t know, people still stop me every f*cking day, everyday ‘When are you going back to MMA?’
“I sort of questioned myself like did I have that much of an impact when I was in MMA? Because I didn’t realize I did, but I must have because people still f*cking love me. I think sometimes I just knock myself down because I had a few losses and stuff like that but I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.”
Till left the UFC off three straight losses to Dricus du Plessis, Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson, but the idea of returning back to his old stomping ground is never far from his mind.
Right now, Till is definitely enjoying his transition into professional boxing, but he never strays too far from MMA with hopes that his dedication eventually leads to a reunion with the UFC.
“I know there’s this stigma out there about me and I’m joking but I train f*cking hard,” Till said. “I did it during my MMA days, I probably overtrained. A lot of people that have been along with me, Tom Aspinall knows I overtrained. If anyone ever asked him he would say ‘Till overtrained.’ So it just depends.
“If the fire is not there like it used to be now and especially outside of fighting, it’s not like I’m doing too bad myself. I’ve set businesses up. I’ve become a little bit of entrepreneur myself. Like I’ve got one of my companies that was on the canvas in a partnership with the UFC. It just all depends about the fight and stuff but I think it will be there. Because I do want to go back. We’ll see.”
Till knows despite his past losses that he’s still more than capable of hanging with the best of the best in the UFC, especially whenever the fight stayed on the feet. That’s what led him to boxing because Till is confident any time he’s standing and trading with an opponent, the advantage is always on his side.
“Every time I was in a striking match in the UFC, apart from [Jorge] Masvidal, no one could really beat me,” Till said. “[Robert] Whittaker didn’t beat me on the feet, no way. Stephen Thompson didn’t beat me on the feet. ‘Cowboy’ [Donald Cerrone] didn’t. [Kelvin] Gastelum didn’t. Derek Brunson didn’t even though he beat me, [Dricus du Plessis] didn’t.
“My losses have always come the way of grappling and a little bit lower level than that, even though I’m not. No knees they call me but striking’s my forte. If you’re going to strike with me, you’ve got to be good. I don’t care if you’re a boxer or what.”