Darren Till is moving on up, who saw that coming?
So far this year, it has paid to miss weight in the UFC. Fighters who have failed to make weight, but still fought are 7-1 in 2018. The sole loss was suffered by Molly McCann, who was
viciously put to sleep in her UFC debut in her hometown of Liverpool. She came in one pound over the flyweight limit.
Yoel Romero secured a middleweight title shot off the back of a catchweight contest. He was supposed to take on Luke Rockhold for the interim strap, but
missing weight by 2.7 lbs meant he was ineligible for the strap. Not that it mattered much as he earned a UFC 225 headliner against Robert Whittaker for the
knockout victory.
Mackenzie Dern (
seven pounds over) submitted Amanda Cooper, Kevin Lee (
one pound over) knocked out Edson Barboza, Mads Burnell (four pounds over) beat Mike Santiago. Michel Prazeres (five pounds over) beat Desmond Green and Alex Perez (half a pound over) scored a unanimous decision win over Eric Shelton. All these fighters had to forfeit a percentage of their purses to their opponents, but as Dominick Cruz famously said, '
wins matter more than anything'.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/1001760846303899649
Clairvoyant Colby
Of course, the seventh fighter to get a win in the UFC after missing weight was Darren Till. 'The Gorilla' scored a
contentious unanimous decision victory over Stephen Thompson in the main event of the promotion's Liverpool debut.
He weighed in 3.5 lbs over the non-title fight welterweight limit. He forfeited 30% of his purse to 'Wonderboy' and had to tip the scales at 188 lbs or under the day of the fight. These were all small prices to pay considering he got the win against the then-number-one contender in the division.
Even though it was a catchweight contest, there was a feeling that the outcome of this bout would have an impact on the welterweight rankings. Colby Covington, who's set to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the interim welterweight strap at UFC 225, suggested that the win would see the Liverpudlian receive a rankings boost.
https://twitter.com/ColbyCovMMA/status/1000833041521152000
Sure enough, in the new rankings update, Till received a major boost. He moved up a whopping six places to take the number two position in the rankings. Only champion Tyron Woodley and interim title challenger RDA are above him in the standings.
Meanwhile, Thompson fell two places to number three, while Covington, former champion Robbie Lawler, rising star Kamaru Usman and veteran Demian Maia all dropped spots at Till's expense.
Covington predicts these things.
