The Film Room: Darren Till
UFC 228 is now available on Amazon Prime.
Darren Till has had quite the meteoric rise to stardom in his brief time with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and now at just 25 years-old, he has the chance to become one of the youngest champions in promotional history when he takes on Tyron Woodley in the main event of UFC 228.
Advertisement
Till possess an interesting mix of muay Thai/karate striking and seamlessly mixes techniques and strategies from the two arts for success in MMA. As a southpaw, Till favors his left straight, which he can land in a variety of ways from many different angles. Till generally fights at a leisurely pace and elects to work on the counter. He can land his left hand as an intercepting counter, back-skipping counter, or a simultaneous counter.
If you have seen any of Till’s fights you have probably noticed the similarities of his style to Connor McGregor’s, including this back skipping left straight. Notice how Till will take a step to his left as his opponent comes forward to create a dominant angle for the counter left straight. Often southpaw counter strikers like Till will shine against orthodox fighters in the open guard but struggle against fellow southpaws when fighting in a closed guard. Till, however, is just as effective when fighting orthodox opponents as he is southpaw foes. He showed this with his performances over southpaw strikers Stephen Thompson and Bojan Velickovic. Against Orthodox athletes, he will land his long left straight down the middle of the open guard and against southpaws he can land it over the top of their lead hand as shown against “Wonderboy.”
Till doesn’t work on the lead often, but as a counter striker, he knows he must come forward first occasionally to keep opponents guessing and to set them up later in the fight. When working on the lead against an orthodox opponent, notice how Till will place his lead foot outside of his opponent’s to create a better angle for his left hand. Many believe Till has nothing more than a left straight, but notice against Donald Cerrone how he lands a variety of left hands in succession. The first being an uppercut; the second a left straight; and the third an overhand left.
If you’re wondering why the odds for this fight are so close, the answer is simple. Till is one of the few fighters in MMA today who can feint consistently and effectively, which happens to be Woodley’s kryptonite throughout his career. Early in his career, Woodley had a problem getting trapped against the cage. Instead of learning to get off the cage he developed his style around having his back to the fence as you can see in nearly every one of his fights. He rarely takes center control and often backs himself to the cage where he is most comfortable. This has worked thus far, but his fight with Rory MacDonald showcased the dangers of his style. Woodley is naturally a counter striker and will bait his opponents to come forward by keeping his back against the cage where he is seemingly in the worse position. Macdonald was the first to notice this tendency and instead of aggressively looking for the finish when his back was against the cage, he showed a healthy dose of feints before jumping in with a combo and immediately moving out of range. Woodley had no answers for this and was dominated from bell to bell. Till’s entire leading game is built around constant feinting before jumping in with a left hand and immediately getting out of range, which could cause major problems for the champion. Woodley is also notorious for biting on feints and blitzing forward with a combo which could set him up for one of Till’s counter lefts.
Since Till keeps his hands low like a karateka, he must rely on evasive movement for defense rather than blocking with the hands and forearms. Till will often pivot to his left or right as opponents come in, but most of his defense comes from retreating out of range or inciting the clinch. Something interesting Till showed in his last fight with Wonderboy was this bull guard cover-up. Notice when Thompson comes in, Till puts his hands up in a bull guard defense and pushes him away once they are up close. This is an old-school muay Thai style of defense, again showcasing his ability to simultaneously mix styles for success in the cage.
But like anything in life, the yin comes with the yang. With his hands low, Till is open for counters when he strikes first. He can also be hit when retreating with his hands low against aggressive opponents who are willing to push through his counter lefts to land something of their own over the top of his low lead hand. He has only been caught clean a handful of times in his UFC tenure, but the openings are there to be exploited and Woodley might be the man to do it.
Till has had favorable matchups thus far in the UFC and has never fought a grappling-based fighter. Woodley is by no means a grappling-heavy fighter, but he does have the wrestling background to cause Till problems if the fight hits the ground. But Till is on the forefront of what many believe is the next style to take over the sport. Elite striking with the takedown defense to keep the fight standing. Since the beginning of the sport, the big debate with fans and fighters has been which aspect of mixed martial arts is most important. Some believe it’s better to have a grappling base and others think a striking base is more suitable. But we have seen with the success of Till, Thompson, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk is that all an elite striker needs is adequate takedown defense for success. If you can’t get them to the ground, then does all the other aspects of grappling even matter? So far it doesn't, but all it takes is one successful takedown to completely change the course of the fight. On the feet, Till has the skills and tendencies to pick apart Woodley but if the fight hits the ground we might see five rounds of dominant top game from Woodley.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Related Articles
