Darren Till earned the biggest win of his career Saturday, stopping Donald Cerrone with strikes in the first round of their UFC Fight Night main event in Gdansk, Poland.
The 24-year-old Liverpool native warned Cerrone in the lead-up to their welterweight bout not to trade strikes with him.
“He’s too old and fragile to be standing with a guy like me… I’m twice his size, how the [expletive] is he going to strike with me?” Till told Peter Carroll of MMAFighting.com. “He’s coming to take me down, that’s his game plan. I don’t fault him for that.”
Till improved to 16-0-1 in mixed martial arts with 10 of those victories coming by way of knockout or TKO.
After going 4-0 in 2016, Cerrone is now 0-3 in 2017. He was finished by Jorge Masvidal in January and dropped a unanimous decision to Robbie Lawler in July. The 34-year-old has a high-output, fan-friendly style, which has made him one of the most popular fighters in UFC history. It also leaves him susceptible to taking damage, which is what happened Saturday.
Till was unranked prior to Saturday’s fight, but that will change considering Cerrone was ranked as the No. 6 contender in the 170-pound division. Following his victory, Till challenged fellow rising contender Mike Perry who just happened to be cageside.
In the co-main event, Poland’s Karolina Kowalkiewicz picked up an emotional unanimous decision win over Jodie Esquibel. Kowalkiewicz landed 127 significant strikes, which is the most of her UFC career.
Here are the complete results from UFC Gdansk
MAIN CARD
— Darren Till def. Donald Cerrone by TKO
— Karolina Kowalkiewicz def. Jodie Esquibel by unanimous decision
— Jan Błachowicz def. Devin Clark Submission (standing rear-naked choke)
— Oskar Piechota def. Jonathan Wilson by unanimous decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Marcin Held def. Nasrat Haqparast by unanimous decision
— Brian Kelleher def. Damian Stasiak by TKO
— Ramazan Emeev def. Sam Alvey by unanimous decision
— Andre Fili def. Artem Lobov by unanimous decision
— Warlley Alves def. Salim Touahri by unanimous decision
— Aspen Ladd def. Lina Länsberg by TKO
— Josh Emmett def. Felipe Arantes by unanimous decision
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