LONDON – Darren Till casually sat on stage Friday at the O2 Arena fielding questions from fans when he was asked who he’d like to fight next and wasted no time sharing a name.
“Uriah Hall,” he said.
Then came a chant.
“After 1-2-3, can we just say ‘F*ck Uriah Hall?’ Can we do that, yeah?” Till asked. “1-2-3 …”
“F*ck Uriah Hall!” the crowd responded in unison.
"1-2-3, F*CK URIAH HALL!"
Darren Till makes it *very* clear who he wants next! 👀 pic.twitter.com/f0x176AIDI
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) March 18, 2022
What was that all about? Well, if you’ve paid attention, you’d know that Hall recently accused Till of ducking him after it was rumored the two men would face each other in a middleweight bout Saturday at UFC Fight Night 204. Instead, Hall is slated to meet Andre Muniz on April 16, but he said he’d rather be fighting Till.
“I wanted Darren Till, but he’s just being a punk-ass b*tch, and I don’t know what happened,” Hall said last month. “He’s just playing the UFC or whatnot. But he’s the guy I wanted, makes sense. … I think he’s just scared. I think he’s really scared. Either that, or he’s injured or some sh*t. He’s always making excuses. That’s how I look at him.”
Till, who’s lost two fights in a row and four of his past five, hasn’t competed since he was choked out by Derek Brunson last September. Afterward, it was revealed that Till tore his ACL 10 weeks before the fight. Till appears close to a return as he’s recently spent a lot of time training with Khamzat Chimaev.
If a fight with Till is what Hall wants, it’s a fight he can get.
“I’ve never dodged any fight,” Till said. “Listen, I’m coming off two losses. The loss before that was to (Robert) Whittaker, probably the second best – if not him and (champion Israel) Adesanya the best middleweights around. I’ve never dodged a fight. I came up to middleweight and fought the two best middleweights at the time, (Kelvin) Gastelum and Whittaker.
“So, if he wants to fight me and we’re on the same schedule, I want to fight him next. That’s how it is, isn’t it?”
Hall will look to rebound from a loss to Sean Strickland when he faces Muniz at UFC Fight Night 205. The loss to Strickland snapped Hall’s four-fight winning streak.
