Darren Till targeted legendary UFC champion after beating a Hall of Famer in a fight Dana White tried to talk him out of

Darren Till made it clear that Israel Adesanya was his goal ahead of facing Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244

After being finished in back-to-back fights at welterweight which ended his undefeated run, Darren Till made the call to move up to middleweight.

The matchup he was booked in for UFC 244 in November of 2019 showed that there was going to be no settling in period for the former title challenger.

Kelvin Gastelum had been beaten earlier that year by Israel Adesanya in an interim title fight that is now forever engrained in the UFC Hall of Fame.

Till told the media during a press conference ahead of the fight that Dana White had tried to talk him out of such a difficult task, but he wanted to jump in at the deep end.

“Dana tried to convince me not to take the fight and I was like, ‘Why?’” he said. “So if it’s another loss, which it won’t be, so what?”

Till went on to beat Gastelum via a split decision, having already made it clear before the fight that there was one middleweight he wanted to face in the future.

The division’s champion, Adesanya, was set to face Paulo Costa in his next title defense, but there was no denying that a clash between the two striking specialists would’ve been huge.

“I couldn’t care less about the middleweight belt at the moment,” Till said at the press conference. “Whatever happens with Israel and Costa, if Israel wins or loses, I feel like that’s the fight to make at Anfield [Liverpool F.C.’s iconic stadium].”

Darren Till narrowly missed out on a fight with Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title

Following his win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244, Darren Till was seemingly just one win away from earning a shot at the middleweight title.

All he had to do was beat former champion Robert Whittaker in July of 2020 to set up a huge meeting with Israel Adesanya.

Adesanya showed a lot of interest in the matchup also but after Till narrowly lost a unanimous decision to ‘The Reaper’, the idea was put on hold.

Till was unable to turn his momentum around, losing back-to-back fights at middleweight before he parted ways with the promotion in February of 2023.