Ray Longo was surprised as many were when Darren Till was awarded a unanimous decision win over Stephen Thompson.
Till shared the Octagon with Thompson in the main event of UFC Liverpool. The bout took place inside the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. There was controversy before the fight even began. Till missed weight by 3.5 pounds. He had to weigh no more than 188 pounds on the day of the fight in order to avoid having the bout canceled. He ended up weighing 187.3 pounds and the fight was on.
Other than a knockdown by Till in the final round, the bout didn’t provide much action. Still, many believed “Wonderboy” won the fight. Instead, it was given to Till. Two judges even scored the fight 49-46 in favor of “The Gorilla.” Thompson believes hometown cooking had something to do with the result.
Mixed martial arts coach Ray Longo recently appeared on the Anik and Florian podcast. He believes the wrong call was made (via MMAFighting.com):
“I really thought it was an easy fight to score – minimum three rounds to two for Wonderboy, maybe four. When they announced those scores – 49-46 – I thought it was definitely him. It’s not an exciting fight, a very tactical chess game, but I just think that Darren Till did nothing. It’s not even what Wonderboy did, it’s what Darren Till didn’t do. Add in the fact that he missed weight, I just think it’s a no win situation for him in that fight.”
The rankings were recently updated and Till shot up from the eighth spot to number two at welterweight. Thompson dropped to the third position. Fans are already dismissing Till’s major bump up due to missing weight. Throw in his controversial unanimous decision victory and it makes matters even more complicated.
Do you believe Darren Till deserved to win the bout against Stephen Thompson?
