Darren Till out vs Marvin Vettori on April 10, Kevin Holland offers to step in
Next weekend’s UFC on ABC 2’s main event has taken a hit as Darren Till has been forced to withdraw due to a collarbone injury. The news was first reported by ESPN’s Ariel Helwani and later confirmed by multiple outlets, including both Till and his scheduled opponent, Marvin Vettori. In a statement released on his Instagram page, Till confirmed that he has suffered a broken collarbone and will be forced to miss the fight.
The fight was set to be a high-stakes matchup in the UFC’s middleweight division, with the possibility of the winner putting themselves in a position to be the next title challenger to champion Israel Adesanya who is looking to defend his title after coming up short in his bid to become the UFC’s light heavyweight champion earlier this year. Adesanya had said previously that with a great performance over Vettori, he’d take a title fight against Till, which Vettori said he knew was being said to get under his skin.
Although Till will be out of the fight, the UFC moved quickly to try and find a replacement for Till, and they might have found one in Kevin Holland, who also has a history with Vettori. After the Italian contender called for anyone to step up, Holland responded he had accepted the fight and Vettori responded with “let’s go.” appearing as both sides have agreed to the fight but no official announcement has been made by the UFC.
Let’s go
— Marvin Vettori (@MarvinVettori) March 30, 2021
The original matchup saw a matchup between two competitors ranked next to each other in the middleweight division with, Till (5) vs Vettori (6) as the division looks for a number-one contender to standout. Darren Till has not fought since July of 2020 when he lost a unanimous decision to former champion Robert Whittaker. Since that fight, Till has seen all three of his scheduled fights get canceled for various reasons.
As for Marvin Vettori, the Italian contender has reeled off four consecutive wins including most recently over Jack Hermansson in December of last year. The last loss Vettori suffered was to Israel Adesanya and he’s made it clear, he’s on a path to get a rematch with the current champion.
An always active fighter, Holland just saw his five-fight winning streak come to a halt earlier this month when he lost a unanimous decision to Derek Brunson, who has also elevated himself into the middleweight title conversation.
There’s no initial word as to how long Darren Till will be out with the collarbone injury but it appears Marvin Vettori will be staying in the main event if all sides can come to an agreement and Kevin Holland steps up as the replacement.
