Former UFC champion Israel Adesanya thinks Darren Till needs to stop being so predictable in his fights.
Till, 29, suffered his third consecutive UFC defeat last weekend when he was choked out by Dricus Du Plessis in Las Vegas after a back and forth fight. 'The Gorilla' was fighting for the first time in over a year after spending time away from the octagon to improve his skills and despite putting up a valiant effort against the South African, he succumbed to a rear-naked choke in the final round.
Adesanya, who lost his middleweight title to Alex Pereira last month, was impressed by certain sequences from Till in the fight but thinks he needs to be more varied with his strikes. Reacting to the fight on his YouTube channel, Adesanya said: “Darren needs to actually like, fight. Don’t just sit there. That’s a mental block. You can’t keep saying, ‘I’m okay,’ because now you’re not okay. He could have got out and had space. Urgency, urgency, urgency.
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“Look, the elbow again,” he added. “He tried to do the same thing again. The guy blitzed and he went for the elbow, and he just knew, ’cause the guy already ate the elbow how many times? He shot in the middle. Look, look at the elbow. The guy knows. Don’t do the same f****ng thing over and over again.”
Despite suffering the fourth defeat of his past five fights, a silver lining for Till is that he earned a $50,000 performance bonus in his loss to Du Plessis. The former welterweight title challenger was once backed to be the next British UFC star but frequent losses have prevented him from doing so.
Till was told by Du Plessis that he is too small for the middleweight division and should move back down to welterweight, a division that he hasn't competed in for over three years. 'The Gorilla' is still hopeful of fighting Adesanya in the future, as he feels they are two of the best strikes in the UFC.
"I feel like it’ll be the best striker against the best striker, I still truly believe that I’m one of the best strikers in the UFC and I know he is too," Till told Mirror Fighting about a fight against Adesanya. "It’s a dream matchup, obviously it’d be good for him to have the belt and get it at Wembley or Anfield. I’ve got to bide my time though, I’m on the ladder at the bottom and I’m just working my way back up."
