Darren Till was closely watching the main event that he was supposed to be a part of.
A collarbone injury forced Till out of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 23 main event, which ended up featuring Marvin Vettori and Till’s replacement Kevin Holland. Vettori dominated the matchup with his wrestling, scoring a commanding unanimous decision win and keeping himself on the short list for a future middleweight title shot.
Even after their matchup fell through, Vettori and Till continued to trade verbal shots, with Vettori accusing Till of faking an injury and Till issuing a heated reply on Instagram in which he called Vettori an “utter moron.”
Vettori’s win over Holland did not impress Till and the Englishman took to Twitter to critique his rival.
“As for Marv… sorry ‘ork.’ It wasn’t the prettiest win but a win’s a win and it means so much to him you can see,” Till wrote. “That fight told me he knew he couldn’t strike with me so he was going to try take me down. Even if he were to succeed in takedowns he wouldn’t have been able to keep me there.
“I would have hurt this man for five rounds on the feet. But hey who the f*ck am I to talk? I pulled out of the fight so every right I have goes out the window with that. Whatever happens for Marvin next, good luck I’m sure we’ll meet soon. I’ve got a fake injury to recover from and repair. See you all soon. All very soon.”
Till is 1-1 since moving up to 185 pounds from the UFC’s welterweight division. He defeated Kelvin Gastelum by split decision in his middleweight debut, then lost a decision to former champion Robert Whittaker in his most recent fight in July 2020.
There is no timetable yet for Till’s return to competition.