On the night of September 4 to 5, another UFC tournament will take place. The main fight of the night is going to be between the fighter from the U.S. Derek Brunson and the representative of Great Britain Darren Till.
The fight will take place in the middleweight division. Brunson is #5 in the official UFC middleweight rankings, while Till is #7.
Derek Brunson: "I'll go back to fighting to break him" ©
Derek Brunson is an MMA veteran who keeps his top level at the age of 37. Moreover, he's improving from fight to fight, and for the last 3 years he has been destroying his opponents very confidently.
Before his last fight, against Kevin Holland, Brunson (as usual) was the underdog, only to crush his very dangerous opponent. Well, seriously, Holland was on a five-fights winning streak then, knocking out his opponents in the first round of his last two fights. And that was in the UFC, yes. But in that fight, Brunson had the advantage for most of the fight. Derek had some successful take-downs and attacked Holland with overhead strikes in the ground. Holland had some successful moments in the stance, but couldn't do anything against Brunson's touchdowns. The fight ended with all the judges giving Brunson the win by 49-45, 49-46, 49-46.
Derek Brunson pro record
The 37-year-old American has 23 wins (12 by knockout, 4 by submission) and 7 losses (5 by knockout, 2 by decision) in his pro record. The last time Brunson suffered defeat was in November 2018 when he lost to Israel Adesanya.
He takes Darren Till seriously, but at the same time, treats the fight with a slight sense of irony:
"Till is deft in the ground fighting but I don't doubt my grappling because I have a black belt in jiu-jitsu and I was on the wrestling team. I think I have a good chance of doing a lot of damage to him on the ground. He's probably going to be worried about takedowns. And if he doesn't, he'll regret it. Touchdowns are very likely the key to winning, and that's one of the main advantages of a fighter who can do everything, keeps working on his techniques, as it makes them a dangerous opponent in all aspects of the fight. You have to use everything. The hype around the fight is absolutely not going to weigh on me. I know what I have to do to win. The funny thing is, I'm not as big of an underdog this time compared to my last three or four fights. This one is really funny to me. I know how to beat him and at the same time I understand that there's a strong opponent in front of me, and I recognize his strengths. I've got to get back to fighting to break him in that aspect. That's it."
Derek Brunson
Darren Till: storming his way into the middleweight division
Till is a former welterweight title challenger who moved up to middleweight two years ago, proving he can compete at a high level there as well. However, the Briton has had to spend his best years on downtime and healing injuries. Till gets hurt all the time, and this year was no exception. In April, Darren was supposed to fight in the main event against Marvin Vettori, but he ended up having to withdraw. In 2020, he canceled his fight against Jack Hermansson. That said, Till's record in the middleweight division is 1-1 so far.
Darren Till pro record
The 28-year old Brit has 18 wins (10 by knockout, 2 by submission) and 3 losses (1 KO, 1 by decision, 1 by submission) in his pro record.
In his last fight (against Robert Whittaker) Till looked very decent, but lost in a tactical war. The two fighters knocked each other out once, but the judges gave the win to Robert, probably because he had a lot of successful takedowns.
That's right, Darren's main weapon is striking, he's good and ruthless at it.
"I have nothing against Derek Brunson, he's on his way to his goal right now. I like being a bully, that's no news to anybody. I'll say what I see fit. With Derek we do things in a more friendly way, he's a great guy. I wish the best for his family, I hope he's providing well for them and he's doing well himself, but I'm still going out there to try and put my fist through his head. That's what I feel about the fight and I'd like to believe he feels the same way. But there's no animosity on my part."
Darren Till
Expert Betting Tips
Once again, Derek Brunson is considered underdog, this tradition unbreakable. To be honest, it's quite surprising. Till feels a little uncomfortable in his new weight class, and he's got decent downtime. And not just downtime, but downtime after injury, it's hard to assess his current condition. But it's easy to say what Brunson's condition is, I'm sure it's good. It's his time now.
1xbet offers the odds of 2.258 on his victory!