Darren Till Biography

Darren Till, also known in the MMA circuit as The Gorilla, was born Darren Jake Till, on December 24, 1992, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. He grew up with his sister, Caitlin.

He was 12 when he began training in Muay Thai. At 14, he dropped out of high school and focused on his professional MMA career. The following year, he turned professional.

He started training with the Liverpool-based mixed martial arts team named Team Kaobon at 17. Throughout his teens, he lived in gyms and relatives’ homes, as he would often get into altercations with his mother, and he was eventually thrown out of his own house.

In August 2012, Till was stabbed in the back twice, after getting into a scuffle with bouncers at a party. It is believed, the knife missed his main artery by a millimeter. He survived the attack. However, he was advised by his coach to move to Brazil to avoid any further altercations in Liverpool.

He thus moved to Brazil and joined the Astra Fight Team in Balneário Camboriú, soon after scoring 3-0 as an amateur with Kaobon. He did not speak Portuguese back then.

In 2012, Darren Till made his professional debut at Sparta MMA 3 – Class, in a match against Brazilian MMA fighter Luciano Oliveira Ribeiro. Till defeated Luciano by a unanimous decision.

Before joining the UFC, Till had a 12-fight winning streak, with 11 of those fights being held in the Brazilian regional circuit, while 1 was held in Argentina. In 2015, he joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In his illustrious UFC career, he fought in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

His debut UFC match was against Wendell de Oliveira at the UFC Fight Night Condit vs. Alves, on May 30, 2015. Till defeated Oliveira in the 2nd round, via knockout (elbows) and continued his unbeaten streak. He then fought against Danish MMA fighter Nicolas Dalby, but the match ended in a controversial majority draw.

Following this, Darren Till continued his winning streak with unanimous victories in matches against German MMA fighter Jessin Ayari and Serbian MMA fighter Bojan Veličković. Till then won against American MMA fighter Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, by TKO (punches), in October 2017, at UFC Fight Night Cowboy vs. Till, in Gdańsk, Poland. This was Till’s first-ever Main Event fight spot

His next match was against American MMA fighter Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson in Liverpool. Till won by a unanimous decision. He thus secured a title shot for the UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 228, against American MMA fighter Tyron Woodley, held on September 8, 2018, in Dallas, Texas, US.

The match saw Woodley dominating Till. Till lost the match in the second round by D'Arce choke hold. This was Till’s first loss in his professional MMA career.

Till lost his next bout, too. The match was against American MMA fighter Jorge Masvidal (UFC Fight Night: Till vs. Masvidal), in London, in March 2019. While Till won the first round, Masvidal won the match via TKO in the second round.

Till, however, was back in form soon and beat American MMA fighter Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244, in November 2019, via split decision. Following this, Till recorded back-to-back losses to Australian MMA fighter Robert Whittaker (in July 2020) and American MMA fighter Derek Brunson (in September 2021).

In the initial moments of the match against Brunson (UFC Fight Night 191), Till took Brunson to the ground. However, Brunson dominated Till later in the match and landed 24 strikes to Till's 0 strikes. Brunson dominated the second round too. The match ended in the third round, with Brunson winning by a rear-naked choke. In December 2022, Till lost in a bout against South African MMA fighter Dricus du Plessis.

To date, Till has competed in the UFC Performance of the Night once (vs. Donald Cerrone) and Fight of the Night thrice (vs. Nicolas Dalby, Jorge Masvidal, and Dricus du Plessis). He has also been the European K1 Champion in Muay Thai.

He was named Pundit Arena’s 2017 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year and MMADNA.nl’s 2017 Rising Star of the Year. In February 2023, reports stated that Till was released by the UFC after he requested to be allowed to leave to pursue other interests.

Darren Till has always been a private person, as far as his relationships are concerned. Reports state that in late 2012 or early 2013, he had begun dating a Brazilian woman. In 2014, they had a daughter, Scarlett Isabella Till. In 2016, he moved back to the UK after splitting with his girlfriend amicably.

In 2017, Till began a relationship with a British woman. They had 2 daughters: Zara (born in 2018) and Raya Lilly (born in 2020). in 2018, he revealed that he had not seen his daughter with his Brazilian girlfriend for more than a year.

Till sports a tattoo on his left arm that is apparently the face of the mother of his first child. He also has a tattoo of the name of his sister Caitlin on the right side of his neck.

On April 18, 2019, Darren Till was arrested in Tenerife, Canary Islands, after trashing a hotel room after being asked to leave. He also apparently stole a taxi when the driver was loading his luggage into the car’s trunk. Till and four other people were sentenced for damage and unauthorized use of a vehicle. They were also fined about £10,000.

In July 2022, the Swedish polish penalized Till for driving under the influence of alcohol with more than 3 times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.