Darren Till recently requested his release from the UFC, which the promotion recently granted this past week.
Now a free agent, Till has revealed that one reason he wanted to take a hiatus from the UFC was to deal with some serious knee issues.
“I’ve been suffering for the past two years, and it’s no secret I think now, at this point,” Till told MMA Junkie. “Obviously, I’ve been speaking to Hunter ever since my (Robert) Whittaker fight where I injured my knees. He’s been going crazy at me for like two years. He’s like, ‘Till, I can’t take much more of this.’ He’s like, ‘I’ve got your back, I know you’re going to be a champ.’ Stuff like that he says to me. But he’s like, ‘You need to get your knees right.’ He said this before my last fight, and said it before the fight before that.”
Till exited the UFC on a three fight losing skid, which included losses to Robert Whittaker, Derek Brunson and Dricus Du Plessis.
The fighter admits his issues started after the Whittaker fight and only worsened leading into the bout against Brunson.
“I’ve got a torn ACL in my right knee,” Till said. “Whittaker fight, I tore my MCL. Eight weeks before I fought Derek Brunson, I tore my ACL in the same knee, and the other one is a torn MCL. So, the other one’s not that bad, but the right one, a torn ACL, you don’t get no worse. Every grade is tore. I’ve been trying to convince myself I’m okay when I’m not, so I need to go off and do some rigorous f*cking stuff with my body, and obviously, the mental side comes into it a little bit.”