Darren Till vs. Jack Hermansson announced for Dec. 5
It looks like Darren Till will be fighting another top ten middleweight before the calendar year is over. Darren Till vs. Jack Hermansson is set to go down a few weeks before Christmas with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto breaking the news and providing some context to the situation.
Breaking: Darren Till (@darrentill2) vs. Jack Hermansson (@jackthejokermma) will headline UFC Fight Night on Dec. 5, pending medical clearance on Till’s left knee (which is looking good). MW matchups are fire right now. Adesanya/Costa. Whittaker/Cannonier. Hermansson/Till. pic.twitter.com/O7rIN7ABM2
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) August 21, 2020
The knee issues alluded to in the tweet are a direct result of Darren Till’s last bout with Robert Whittaker. A variety of kicks to that area caused Till and many to theorize he may seriously have hurt his knee. The pride of Liverpool would lose via unanimous decision but Till ultimately gave a good account of himself against the former middleweight titlist, Whittaker. This put The Gorilla at 1-1 in his UFC middleweight run following a split decision victory over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 244.
Hermansson’s last bout saw him get himself back into the win column. He defeated Kelvin Gastelum via heel hook a minute eighteen seconds into the first round in their Fight Island bout. Jack Hermansson rebounded there from a knockout loss to Jared Cannonier in September 2019 which snapped a four-fight winning streak. Both Till and Hermansson had their last fights in July.
Darren Till vs. Jack Hermansson
Darren Till vs. Jack Hermansson pits the number six ranked middleweight against the number four ranked middleweight, respectively. These are per the UFC’s official rankings system. With this announcement, it’s clear that the middleweight matchups are plentiful through the remainder of 2020.
Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa for the championship, Jared Cannonier vs Robert Whittaker in a likely title eliminator, and this Darren Till vs Jack Hermansson bout is of a high stakes nature too. The winner would vault themselves to a place right below where the Cannonier vs Whittaker winner would be. The top ten of 185 lbs is an incredible one to look at and let one’s mind wander with all of the incredible matchmaking permutations that will be available for years to come.
