Darren Till explains why he won’t be cornering Chris Curtis at UFC London: ‘It would be disrespectful’

Darren Till won’t be making an appearance in any official capacity at UFC London.

The plan had been for Till to corner Chris Curtis against Jack Hermansson at Saturday’s show, with Curtis having replaced Till when the English standout was forced to withdraw from his matchup with Hermansson due to an injury. Curtis initially proposed the team-up on social media and Till accepted, but on Thursday Till released a statement in which he said that he will not corner Curtis out of respect for Hermansson.

“I won’t be cornering Chris this weekend at UFC London,” Till wrote via social media. “I feel it would be disrespectful to the whole situation after pulling out of the fight to then turn up to the corner of the fight. I wish Chris the best of luck he’s a proper guy and we trained together and he can do good things. I also wish Jack the best of luck may both men have a good fight.”

Till also suggested that he may need to make serious changes to his fight preparation to preserve his body for the future. This is the second time that an injury has forced Till to withdraw from of a scheduled bout with Hermansson and an injury also forced him out of a high-profile bout against Marvin Vettori in April 2021.

He has competed just twice since the start of 2020, both losses. Most recently, Till lost by third-round submission to Derek Brunson in the main event of UFC Vegas 36 this past September.

“To the people that messaged me saying keep my head up, etc., it’s massively appreciated but the only problem right now is that my body is brittle through years of hard torment day in day out to the body,” Till wrote. “ I need to take a more controlled relaxed approach in the next 10 years!”

Curtis later chimed in via Twitter, defending Till and the initial plan to have Till corner him: