Darren Till: Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero Was ‘Stale’

Darren Till was one of many who didn’t expect to see what went down between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero.

Adesanya successfully defended his title via unanimous decision against Romero this past weekend. However, it was a lackluster fight with very little action from both sides. Both fighters have received plenty of criticism for their part in the uneventful main event.

Till — who made a successful middleweight debut with a win over Kelvin Gastelum in November — kept a close eye on the contest. However, he acknowledges it wasn’t what people were expecting, even likening it to his fight with Gastelum.

“I just think it was stale,” Till told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast. “I don’t think people expected it. People could say my last fight was stale, which it was, but I didn’t big it up or nothing – I sort of just went in there and got the win technically and then went home all happy with my new division, middleweight.

“But that fight was bigged up. Obviously, everyone has been on about how scary Yoel is. For the past few months, I’ve been making jokes about being scared of Yoel because he’s an animal and Izzy has been in these technical wars with Gastelum.”

Till felt Romero didn’t look as explosive as he did in the past. Meanwhile, he noted how Adesanya kept running away whenever Romero did advance.

That said, the Liverpool native feels both fighters should get a pass for what was a rare uneventful fight involving either of them.

“Yoel looked dead heavy, he didn’t look as explosive,” he added. “Izzy was sort of running away and stuff like that, but can always give them [a break] for one fight, you give them a bypass.

“That’s it really, there’s not a lot to comment on because there wasn’t a lot happening.”

Do you agree with Till?