UFC taking big risk booking Till vs. Gastelum
Darren Till will embark on one of the toughest challenges of his career Nov. 2 when he battles former middleweight title challenger Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244.
While the matchup represents a fast track toward a middleweight title shot, it’s a risky move for one of the UFC's biggest stars, who desperately needs to turn his career around.
The 26-year-old Till is coming off back-to-back stoppage losses to Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal. His grueling cut to 170 pounds clearly played a role in those setbacks. Moving up to middleweight appears to be the right decision. It will be interesting to see if he experiences the same success as Robert Whittaker, who found new life after moving to the 185-pound weight class in 2014.
Like Till, Whittaker had lost two of three fights in the welterweight division, but faced Clint Hester in his middleweight debut - a much lower-ranked opponent. "The Reaper" defeated Hester and went on a six-fight winning streak en route to capturing the vacant middleweight title over Yoel Romero at UFC 213. Building Whittaker back up against a lower-ranked opponent worked, and it's puzzling that UFC matchmakers aren't putting Till in the same situation.
We saw how dangerous Gastelum was earlier this year when he was minutes away from capturing the interim middleweight championship against Israel Adesanya at UFC 236. The 27-year-old rocked Adesanya with a head kick in the fourth round and nearly finished "The Last Stylebender." The performance proved that the Kings MMA product belongs at the top of the division. His speed, wrestling, and boxing have given many fighters in the division problems, including former middleweight champion Michael Bisping and former contender Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. It could be a long night for Till, who struggled with Woodley's wrestling two fights ago.
Till would have been better served fighting someone like former middleweight champion Anderson Silva. "The Spider" is still one of the biggest names in the division, but he's coming off two straight losses, and it would have been a good opportunity to see where both fighters fit at 185 pounds.
Jumping into the deep end of the middleweight division could pay off, and perhaps the UFC knows something about Till that we don't. But one of the UFC's brightest young stars potentially suffering three straight losses seems bad for business.
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