Ex-UFC star Darren Till reveals losing six-Figure sponsorship due to Venum kit deal: ‘There was no way around it’
Former UFC welterweight Darren Till reveals an eye-watering amount of money that he was forced to walk away from during his UFC career.
While Till never reached the heights in the UFC that was hoped for, even now the 31-year-old’s name still holds value. Always funny and outspoken, Darren Till garnered a following quickly during his time with the promotion – something that any normal athlete would be to fully cash in on.
However, the UFC has strict advertising rules which means that fighters are restricted in terms of what products they can promote, and when they are able to promote them. For example, fighters are no longer allowed to have sponsors on custom shorts with Venum being the uniform of the UFC.
Darren Till talks missing out on pay through UFC’s deal with Venum
Sponsorships on fight night shorts had proved to be valuable to fighters when they were permitted.
Talking on the Ben Heath Podcast, Till revealed that he was forced to turn down sponsorship offers during the height of his career.
“I know in the past when I was fighting I had massive, massive offers for sponsorship to go on shorts, but I’ve had to turn it down because of Venum, so that’s the only thing where it’s been a bit annoying,” said Darren Till. “This was in the past. They were a construction company, and they were like ‘We want to pay Till this much,’ and I was like ‘what!?’ I was saying to my friend, ‘Is there no way around this? Like I can’t put them on my shorts.’ I had to turn the offer down. That left a little bit of bitterness in my mouth.
Continuing, Till revealed that missed out on six-figure paycheques.
“About $150,000. I was just thinking like UFC pay, and $150,000 on top. I need to do this. There was no way around it,” Till said. “Because talking with the UFC they have that deal in place with Venum. There are no ifs, buts, maybes. You’re in Venum, you’re in Monster, the shoes are Reebok and I just had to turn the deal down.
Venum were paying a main event fighter something like $20,000 or something like that, which I’m not going to turn my nose at that. And at the time my social media was banging, I could have probably gathered three or four more sponsors as well,” Till continued. “So I could’ve walked away with just sponsorship, with, I don’t know, $300,000-$400,000, I know I could’ve gained that. But If I could ever be so critical, which I don’t like being critical, it’d be along that side.”
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