Shocking video footage has been released and then swiftly taken back down again of Darren Till’s brutal attempt to make weight for his headlining fight with Stephen Thompson at UFC Fight Night 130 this past Sunday night in Liverpool.
The video, posted by own of his sponsor’s Paddy Power, showed that Till still had 11lbs to cut when he first started hitting pads and running on the treadmill in the early hours of Friday morning.
Till had to be helped off the tradmill by his coaches and after spending time in the sauna, he was seen crawling out on the brink of exhaustion, before having to leave to attend a family emergency at 5am and returning later to continue the gruelling process.
The video also revealed that Till also underwent colonic hydrotherapy to aid his cut and most shockingly of all, at one stage during his cut briefly claimed that he couldn’t see.
Remarkably, it’s claimed that Till declined even further after that, though out of respect for the fighter that footage wasn’t shown on the video.
Despite putting his health in severe jeopardy, Till still wasn’t able to make weight for the fight in time, coming in three-and-a-half pounds overweight, though after being fined 30% of his purse the bout was allowed to proceed, with ‘The Gorilla’ still managing to win on fight night despite his ordeal the day before.
The video has now been removed after it generated an immediate backlash, with the Association of Boxing Commission’s Mike Mazulli leading the charge, calling for Till’s coaches to be punished.
“I was appalled seeing seven people sit there and push this kid to the point where he lost his vision,” Mazulli told MMAjunkie. “They should suspend those corner people that tried to help him cut that kind of weight, first of all.
“They think it’s OK to do what they did to that kid? They’re going to get him killed. Right now, I am so upset at this whole industry.
“You’re going to be sitting there with a girlfriend, with parents, who lost their kid to something so stupid, for no apparent reason. What’s going to happen is you’re going to have a mother and a father losing their child over weight-cutting to fight – not in a fight.”
