Darren Till vs. Dricus du Plessis in the works for UFC 282
Darren Till is making good on his promise of fighting before the end of 2022.
The popular Liverpool native has verbally agreed to meet rising prospect Dricus du Plessis in a pivotal middleweight matchup on Dec. 10 at UFC 282. Contracts have yet to be signed but both fighters have agreed to it. MMA Fighting confirmed the matchup Tuesday following an initial report by ESPN.
Till is unranked at 185 pounds in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings, while du Plessis recently debuted at No. 15 following a unanimous decision win over Brad Tavares at UFC 276.
Till (18-4-1) has fallen on hard times of late. The 29-year-old has lost four of his past five bouts, culminating in a third-round submission defeat to Derek Brunson in Sept. 2021.
He also was reportedly arrested in Stockholm in July on drunk driving charges.
Du Plessis (17-2), on the other hand, has thus far made the best of his UFC opportunity. The 28-year-old native of South Africa scored back-to-back knockout wins over Markus Perez and Trevin Giles to kick off his octagon run, then followed it up with his win over Tavares.
UFC 282 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight rematch between UFC champion Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira.
Mike Heck contributed to this report.