Darren Till returned to the ring for his second fight of the year as he scraped by fellow UFC veteran Darren Stewart.
After winning his Misfits Boxing debut with a vicious late knockout of the surging Anthony Taylor, Till’s return was hotly anticipated. However, he had to wait a month after his spot as the co-main event on KSI and Dillon Danis’ doomed Manchester fight fell victim to the event’s cancellation.
However, he was quickly moved to the main event of Friday night’s card in Derby and kept his match with former UFC and Cage Warriors middleweight contender Darren Stewart. Elsewhere on the card, there was a bizarre four-man ‘elimination tag match’ which featured Love Island star Curtis Pritchard.
Darren Till vs Darren Stewart Misfits 21 result
A small crowd in the region of 1,600 packed into the Valiant Live Arena in Derby, with a huge reception coming for the hometown star Ty Mitchell in the co-main event as he obliterated Idris Virgo. And Till made a very short walk down the runway to make it to the ring.
Darren Till allowed Londoner Stewart to chase him towards the ropes early, landing his counter-punches and within a minute and a half put his rival to the canvas with a big left hand. ‘The Dentist’ is better known for his grappling, and struggled to find a rhythm in the opening round.
It appeared that Till was able to land at will against an opponent who struggled to get into the clinch. Stewart did find success getting inside but was handily picked off with the same counter left hook on almost every move.
‘The Dentist’ did have an impressive ability to recover from big shots, and it took him into a much better third round where he was able to get inside and have success with his right hand. However, it seemed all he was doing was slowing down his rival and avoiding bigger shots.
By round six, Stewart was doing a very good job of landing his own punches, and it began to score for him as the minutes progressed. Whether or not it was enough to get him back into the fight was another thing, but it became clear the former Cage Warriors star was there to win.
As Till began to tire, his ‘rope-a-dope’ strategy seemed to become difficult to maintain as Stewart made it through with a number of scoring punches. And just as it seemed he may be heading towards doing enough to sneak at least a close scorecard, Till viciously dropped him right on the bell to secure the win.
Darren Till’s future in combat confirmed after Misfits Boxing run
After two tune-up fights in Misfits and a bizarre one-round outing in Dubai last summer following a few years out, Darren Till will now be looking to move on to bigger and better fights. He has called for the likes of KSI, Jake Paul and Mike Perry, and also has a lingering feud with Tommy Fury.
However, he is also a hot property in the MMA world, giving current world champion Dricus Du Plessis a stern test in their clash back in 2022. He has claimed he would be interested in trying out a run in the PFL, while his return to the UFC is also expected once he is done boxing.
Till was due to fight Fury earlier this year, but the Love Island star and unbeaten professional boxer pulled out on three weeks’ notice. He claimed that it was due to concerns that the ex-UFC star would follow through on press conference jibes where he claimed he would kick him in the head.