Former UFC welterweight title challenger Darren Till, who jumped to the middleweight division following a series of brutal weight cuts, was released from his UFC contract earlier this year to focus on his health.
That required knee injections and other treatments that would have landed “The Gorilla” in hot water with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). But in a recent (and somewhat surprising) turn of events, USADA announced the dissolution of its UFC partnership.
Goodbye USADA … hello Till?
“God bless Dana White, I absolutely love him to death and I’ll be back at the UFC one day even though everyone thinks I won’t, but I will,” Till told The Schmo. “Superhuman athletes coming to a UFC near you soon? There’s one thing I’ve never got involved in: it’s the politics and the pay. I always told Dana, if I ever had a problem with him, I’d always confront him face-to-face, which I did. Let’s see what happens with USADA. More steroids, isn’t it?”
Till, 30, slid all the way down to No. 15 in the official UFC rankings before falling off the charts altogether in the wake of his UFC release. It doesn’t seem that long ago when “The Gorilla” was teasing a showdown opposite Israel Adesanya for the 185-pound strap, but the middleweight landscape has dramatically changed over the last few months.
To the point where Khamzat Chimaev and Kamaru Usman — unranked at 185 pounds — are guaranteed the next shot at current champion Sean Strickland with a victory at UFC 294 this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
“I love Khamzat, God bless him,” Till continued. “Usman’s got balls but I just think Khamzat’s gonna run over him. I do. As much as I’m his friend, his biggest fan, Khamzat, I think he’s gonna run over Usman. All respect to [Usman], he’s a GOAT, but yeah, I think Khamzat’s gonna rag-doll him, sorry to say.”
Still no word yet on when or where Till will fight next.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
