UFC 244: Will Darren Till match Kelvin Gastelum upon his middleweight debut?
The Ultimate Fighting Championship has confirmed that former UFC Welterweight Title contender, Darren Till, will be moving up to the middleweight division and will face Kelvin Gastelum at the upcoming UFC 244 event.
Darren Till through the years
Darren Till made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 67 in 2015 in an impressive knockout win over Brazilian fighter, Wendell de Oliveira Marques. Following wins over the likes of Bojan Velickovic and Donald Cerrone, Till faced former Welterweight title contender, Stephen Thomspon, in his hometown of Liverpool at UFC Fight Night 130. Till won the fight via unanimous decision.
At UFC 228, Till challenged for Tyron Woodley's UFC Welterweight Championship but lost the fight via the D'Arce Choke. At UFC Fight Night 147, Till faced Jorge Masvidal and suffered his second Octagon loss in a row after being knocked out in the second round.
How will Darren Till fair up against Kelvin Gastelum?
Before his fight against Jorge Masvidal in March, Darren Till was in talks for a potential move up to the UFC Middleweight Division, and after recently calling out Kelvin Gastelum on Instagram, The Gorilla has now secured a fight against the former UFC Middleweight Title contender for UFC 244.
Till, who stands at 1.83m tall, will definitely have the height advantage over Gastelum, who stands at 1.75m. However, compared to their previous fights, Gastelum's last two outings saw him defeat Ronald Souza in a back-and-forth fight, whereas, his last fight in the Octagon saw him suffer a split decision loss to Israel Adesanya in an interim Middleweight Championship bout.
As for Till, The Gorilla is coming off two back-to-back losses and will look to secure his first win in 2019, as he aims for a perfect debut at 185 lbs.
The UFC confirmed the bout with the following tweet:
When is UFC 244?
UFC 244 is scheduled to take place on the 2 November 2019 at Madison Square Garden. So far, only three fights have been confirmed for the pay-per-view, including a light heavyweight fight between Johnny Walker and Corey Anderson, and the return of heavyweight sensation, Derrick Lewis, who will face Blagoy Ivanov.