Commission chief demands suspension after UFC fighter’s ‘appalling’ weight-cut video
The head of the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) has called for Darren Till’s corner to be suspended after a video of him losing his vision as he cut weight for a UFC bout last weekend was released.
The video, which was released by an Irish bookmaker who has a sponsorship deal with the Liverpool-born fighter, has since been removed from the internet. It showed Till struggling to make weight on the eve of his weigh-in with Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson ahead of their main event bout the following evening.
The 25 year old eventually missed his contracted weight by 3.5lbs, something which was blamed on a ‘family emergency’ which took the fighter’s attention away from the cut. While the video alludes to that, it is the sight of a gaunt Till hitting mitts, or crawling out of a sauna which has provoked significant condemnation in the MMA community.
Video chronicles Darren Till’s brutal weight cut before UFC Liverpool https://t.co/KJJawMkQxhpic.twitter.com/8kBvWAvkIJ
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) May 31, 2018
The most shocking aspect of the video is Till stating that he was losing his vision as a result of the extreme dehydration he was enduring in an attempt to meet the welterweight limit.
“I was appalled seeing seven people sit there and push this kid to the point where he lost his vision,” ABC chief Mike Mazulli told MMAJunkie.
“They should suspend those corner people that tried to help him cut that kind of weight, first of all,” he said, adding that if Till was seeking to fight under the jurisdiction of the Mohegan commission he oversees, the fighter would require a doctor’s note stating that he can safely make the welterweight limit. If not, a move up to the middleweight division would be mandated.
The practice of cutting weight in mixed martial arts has been coming under considerable scrutiny in recent times. Last January, UFC middleweight Uriah Hall collapsed backstage during a weight-cut, suffering a seizure and what he would later describe as a “minor heart attack.”
Mazzulli says that scenes like this must be eradicated from mixed martial arts before tragedy strikes.
“They think it’s OK to do what they did to that kid? They’re going to get him killed,” he added. “Right now, I am so upset at this whole industry.”
“You’re going to be sitting there with a girlfriend, with parents, who lost their kid to something so stupid, for no apparent reason,” Mazzulli said. “What’s going to happen is you’re going to have a mother and a father losing their child over weight-cutting to fight – not in a fight.”
