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Darren Till's past weight-cutting struggles are pretty well known in the MMA world.
'The Gorilla' recently uploaded a picture of himself from his days competing as a welterweight in the UFC. In the post, Till made fun of himself for going through the struggle of making the 170-pound weight limit:
"The things I used to do to make WW, crackhead!"
Weight-cutting was a serious issue for the 29-year-old as a welterweight. The tussle with the weighing scale got so bad at one point that 'The Gorilla' came in at 3.5 pounds overweight for his fight against Stephen Thompson at UFC Liverpool.
Footage of Till's weight cut before the fight shows how brutal the process was for the 29-year-old.
But on fight night, 'The Gorilla' got the better of Thompson and took home a unanimous decision victory.
The victory earned him a shot at the UFC welterweight title. The 29-year-old then faced Tyron Woodley for UFC gold at UFC 228. Till came up short that night and was submitted in the second round by 'The Chosen One'.
In his next fight, Till was brutally knocked out by Jorge Masvidal in London. Following this, he changed weight divisions and moved up to fight as a 185-pounder.
Darren Till explains why he moved up to middleweight
In August 2021, Darren Till sat down for an interview with John Gooden for ESPN MMA. During the chat, 'The Gorilla' talked about his move to middleweight and the reason behind it:
"It was the lifestyle. It was always, like, more focus on weight than training a lot. I think I just outgrew welterweight a little bit too much with me leg shape and, you know, I'm a big guy up top as well. I just outgrew it a little bit. Instead of the rigorous cuts, I've done rigorous cuts man, now I don't even think about the weight cut. I don't even give it a second thought."
You can check out Darren Till's full interview with ESPN MMA below:
The move to middleweight has not gone hugely well for Till. The 29-year-old has had three fights as a 185-pounder and has been on the losing side of two of them. Overall, 'The Gorilla' has only had one win in his last five appearances in the octagon.
