Darren Till fought the biggest fight of his career at UFC 228 two weekends ago in a title bout against welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. “The Gorilla” lost via second round stoppage, when he was forced into submission via a D’arce choke.
But what led to the choke was a right hand counter from Woodley from Till’s lead right uppercut. And according to Daniel Cormier who was present at the broadcast table during the fight that night, it was a very crucial mistake that should have been avoided altogether.
“Darren Till threw one shot,” the UFC double-champ said (transcript via BJPenn.com). “When he finally decided to go — I’ve always hated this combination.”
Cormier also pointed out that this particular punch can only be pulled off by the former “champ-champ” Conor McGregor.
“The only person that should ever throw a lead uppercut, punch down the middle is Conor McGregor. He’s the only person that has successfully done that time and time again. Conor goes uppercut, straight left hand. Everybody else: stop! No I’m serious. Everybody else, stop!”
“Chuck Liddell almost got killed against Rashad Evans because [he did] that. And now look at Darren Till. You can not throw that. It’s a flawed technique. Because when you do this, and you’re loading that counter-hand, when you’re loading that second punch… You are so exposed [to the counter].”
Because of what Cormier pointed out to be a likely an error in judgment, Till now has one loss in his record: 17-1-1 (with 12 wins by stoppage).