During his rise to prominence in the UFC, Darren Till was as confident, self assured and fearless a fighter as anyone on the UFC’s roster, but the Brit admits that his self belief was shaken after a vicious KO loss to Jorge Masvidal back in March.
“It hurt a lot for a while,” Till admits in a new interview with BT Sport. “A lot of guys say, ‘I wasn’t bothered,’ but it hurt. Just because I just know what could have been after that fight. It could have been title, back in there, a lot of stuff. I even said to coach Colin, ‘Win or lose this fight, Colin, I wanna be straight back in and fight again,’ but it never quite went that way. I just like sort of fell off the wagon.”
Instead Till spent the last eight months on the sidelines, but claims that after a low period he’s managed to slowly regain confidence in himself.
“All my life I’ve had this crazy confidence that I’m just this superhuman being inside that Octagon and in life and it got knocked a bit,” Till explained. “I’m not ashamed to say that. I want to get that back. It’s there. I’m still that confident guy that if you put me in front of everyone, I know I can beat them. I know there’s something in me that can beat everyone. I’ve got that technique and I’ve got that will. It got lost a bit after the fight, so I just had to find it. That’s why maybe it’s took a little bit longer to come back.”
Now Till will step up to middleweight for his next fight against Kelvin Gastelum, suggesting that his crisis of confidence hasn’t detracted from his eagerness to take on big fights.
“I didn’t even know what I was gonna do,” Till said. “I was in two minds and then Kelvin sorta called me out on Twitter and I was like listen, it’s sort of that stupid cliche saying, ‘Go big or go home.’ In my eyes, one of the chance to fight one of the best in the division. He’s a dog, he’s a dog, he’s a Mexican dog. So tough, so durable. I can’t turn down challenges like that.”
