UFC 244 Live Stream The 26-year-old out of Liverpool, England was on his way to New York City for his UFC 244 bout with former middleweight title contender Kelvin Gastelum at Madison Square Garden this week when his coach Colin Heron pointed out the problem.
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It’s a logical issue to have, taking a long flight across the Atlantic Ocean while cutting weight isn’t easy, but in the grander scheme of things, this was the least complicated thing about Till’s week.
First, Till’s trip to New York was delayed due to visa issues. There was even a consideration that Jared Cannonier could have to step in to face Gastelum in Till’s stead. Add that to the fact that Till was making his first cut to 185 rather than 170 and there was nothing simple about the final week of October.
Just chill, just chilling out…just training,” he said Friday. “Everything else is bulls — , all of it, everything else, the fight matters (Saturday).
“You know, I said to the UFC, ‘I’ll be here.’”
And Till was there for Friday morning’s official weigh-in. He came in for his first fight at middleweight at 186 pounds and admitted he had some struggles. Some of that was due to holding the extra weight due to a later flight in the week, but it also had to do with new territory.
In his previous 20 fights in MMA, he had always cut to 170 pounds. He now says that is impossible as he has put on too much muscle to get back down to that weight safely, but that didn’t mean his most recent cut would come easy.
He said he actually misjudged where he should start his cut, but ultimately — while his final two to four pounds was tough to get rid of — this was a much better experience than his previous drops down to 170 where he was torturing himself every step of the way.
He said he feels stronger this time around and he believes he always has a speed advantage when he steps into the cage. All of that had him looking very relaxed when speaking to the media Friday night.
Still though, what he is doing isn’t simple. He has had a long, complicated week and he will be fighting a serious contender in the middleweight division. No one would fault him for taking a loss to a man who took the champion Israel Adesanya to the brink in a battle for the interim belt.
But Till didn’t offer up excuses.
“It’s all bulls — . It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “As a fighter, you can tell yourself it means something, ‘I’m jet lagged’ or ‘I’m heavy’ or ‘I’ve got this technical problem I need to deal with’ but at the end of the day it’s all bulls
