Tensions are already rising between former UFC middleweights Darren Till and Luke Rockhold.
Timing never aligned for Till and Rockhold to collide while still under the UFC banner. Instead, they’re now set to compete in a six-round, 193-pound boxing match at Misfits Boxing 22 on Aug. 30 in Manchester, England. Till and the former UFC middleweight champion met face-to-face for the first time on Wednesday at a pre-fight press conference in London. Afterward, their verbal jabs continued to fly on a heated virtual faceoff on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” which led to Till accusing Rockhold of taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Till: “I’m gonna f***ing beat you up just for being a little juice head c***.”
Rockhold: “You’re not ‘Tilly,’ you’re ‘T****es’ now. You’re f***ing ‘T****es.'”
Till: “I’m just like ‘DC’ (Daniel Cormier). ‘DC’ was a big fat jack of potato, but he could still fight like f***. I’m the white ‘DC.'”
Rockhold: “Ask ‘DC’ how our boxing matches went. I made t****es fly. … You better get in shape and shut up.”
Till first lobbed the PED accusations at Rockhold during Wednesday’s pre-fight press conference, while Rockhold countered with similar accusations of his own toward Till. Throughout their professional combat sports careers, neither man has tested positive for any banned substances.
“You can get the VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) involved,” Rockhold said to Till. “I had local guys telling me everybody from your team has popped. And it’s always the person accusing people the most who are on s***.”
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From a purely fighting perspective, both have been known for their strong striking abilities, albeit in different respects. Rockhold will be Till’s third pro boxing match (fourth overall), while Rockhold’s lone boxing appearance was in a ill-fated bare-knuckle match with Mike Perry in April 2023.
Although Till and Rockhold have both been knocked out in their MMA careers, they’ve each managed to avoid that fate in competition since leaving the UFC. Despite Till having the advantage in recent boxing experience, Rockhold remains confident that his chin will hold up better in their matchup.
Till, of course, disagreed.
“I can take every shot,” Till stated. “Look at the shots I took from all the guys I fought at middleweight. No one knocked me out. Nobody knocked me out at middleweight, and I fought all the best guys. [Robert] Whittaker, Dricus [du Plessis], all them guys, [Kelvin] Gastelum. I laughed at everyone and I’ve got a f***ing chin. You got battered by Mike Perry, and let me just tell ya, I’m not even looking for the Mike Perry fight now. He’s that much of a bum. He’s the biggest bum out there. He’s a bum.”
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Historically, Rockhold has been the physically bigger fighter, competing as high as 205 pounds in the UFC light heavyweight division, while Till started out as a 170-pound welterweight. They’ll meet in somewhat of a middle ground at 193 pounds for Misfits Boxing 22. Rockhold last competed at 195 pounds for his Karate Combat victory over Joe Schilling last year.
That being said, Rockhold claims it wasn’t easy landing on the match’s weight.
“This kid’s been b****ing about everything,” Rockhold said. “He wanted it 185. His last fight was 198, I believe. Then he said he wouldn’t go above 188, which is just f***ing weird and dumb. It just shows weakness. Then, somehow, we b**** about that for a couple weeks and settle on 193. I don’t know what these f***ing weights are he keeps coming up with. But let’s pick a real weight. Have a pair of balls and let’s just do this right. What are we b****ing about? We’re all in the same thing. His last fights were much above weight, and he’s just obviously scared and trying to take weight away to make things harder [for me]. Make himself up, try to say I’m slower, try to say I’m chinny.
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“I guarantee you I’m faster than you. I hit harder than you, I move better than you and I’ve got a bigger set of balls.”
Before Rockhold signed to make his Misfits Boxing debut, his first bout of 2025 appeared to be an MMA return for a would-be rematch against old rival Chris Weidman. That fight was set to be within the upstart Global Fight League (GFL), which never got off the ground due to ambitious financial promises.
In hindsight, Rockhold admits he never knew whether he’d actually get a chance to fight for the promotion, but was happy to accept the money GFL offered him.
He also isn’t closing the door on the sport he made his name in, he just wants to focus on the sweet science for the time being.
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“I was there for the GFL to get paid,” Rockhold said. “Everybody else thought it was going to happen. I was getting paychecks, I made money. I was getting paid, dog. They were dishing out seven-figure paychecks on the schedule that were made for non-UFC champions. You gotta think like, that’s not going to be feasible. How are you going to keep that business up and running when those guys are getting paid that much? There’s not enough revenue to counteract that. So, I was taking the paychecks and moving on.
“Boxing is what I want to do, and I never close the door on MMA, but it’s nice to take a break and I want to box for a little bit.”
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