Former Ultimate Fighting Championship star Darren Till
might grace the Karate Combat pit sometime next year, according to
company president Asim
Zaidi.
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Till was
granted his UFC release earlier this year on the heels of three
consecutive losses. While “The Gorilla” revealed that he was still
on good terms with the promotion, his future in MMA remains
unclear.
A longtime muay thai practitioner, Till recently sounded dismissive
of Karate Combat fighters, claiming he could beat anyone on the
roster. The promotion’s 185-pound champ, Ross Levine, challenged
Till in response, leading to the promotion courting the
Liverpudlian regarding a title fight debut.
Zaidi recently revealed that Till’s title fight with Levine was
originally being targeted for Karate Combat 43 on Dec. 15 in Las
Vegas. However, that fell through and Levine will now defend his
strap against UFC vet Sam Alvey. The
card will be headlined by a rubber fight between former UFC champs
Anthony
Pettis and Benson
Henderson.
However, Till’s clash against Levine is still very much in the
works for sometime early next year.
“Darren
Till is one of the top strikers in the game and so is our
middleweight champion Ross Levine, so we’re very interested in
making that fight,” Zaidi recently told
Daily Star Sport. “We’d hoped to get the fight made for the
Dec. 15 event in Las Vegas but we couldn’t get a deal finalized in
time. We’ll return to negotiations in 2024 and hopefully get that
fight made early in the new year. In the meantime, Ross faces
another UFC veteran — Sam Alvey — at
Karate Combat 43 on Dec. 15 on the card headlined by the trilogy
rubber match between Anthony
Pettis and Benson
Henderson.”