Tomorrow night on the main card of UFC 282, we are going to see a fun matchup in the middleweight division. Former title challenger Darren Till (18-4-1) returns as he takes on the incredibly entertaining Dricus Du Plessis (17-2).
Darren Till has had a pretty steep fall from grace after surging through the UFC ranks early on in his career. The promotion fast-tracked him to a welterweight title shot where he was ultimately stopped by Tyron Woodley. Starting with that fight, he’s just 1-4 in his last five.
He moved up to middleweight and won his first fight against Kelvin Gastelum. However, since then, he’s been hit with back-to-back losses and a number of injuries that have continuously kept him out of fights. He’s hoping for a big bounce back tomorrow night.
Till is going to have a guy coming at him hard tomorrow night so he better be ready. Du Plessis has won five fights in a row leading up to UFC 282. He continuously looks better and better. Du Plessis is non-stop action and he’s going to get right in the face of Till tomorrow night just like he did in his last win against Brad Tavares.
UFC 282 Prediction
To me, this fight is going to come down to whether or not Till can stay composed in the fire. Du Plessis is not going to let him get comfortable. If Till needs to settle in to get his feet under him tomorrow night, he’s going to be in trouble. Till needs to be sharp from the jump.
Du Plessis is very hittable especially when he does his blitz attacks. Till has one of the best straight lefts in the game when he’s on. However, with all the time away due to injuries, will Till be as sharp as he needs to be. There are a lot of question marks surrounding Till.
That being said, there’s something about this matchup that I like for Till. There are a lot of openings that Du Plessis when he rushes in for Till to take advantage of. If Till is on, I think he can pick apart Du Plessis with straight shots at UFC 282.
If he’s not, I just see him getting overwhelmed from the pressure and attacks of Du Plessis. I’m going to stick with my gut here and pick Till, but that pick is contingent on him looking like the Till of old. Time will tell if that’s who we get.
Prediction: Darren Till by Decision