Darren Till vs Yoel Romero went the full five rounds, and it was the Liverpool fighter who had his hand raised. Till beat the former UFC title challenger by unanimous decision at BKFC 94 at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday, September 26, with all three judges scoring the cruiserweight bout 49-46.
The win moves Till, 33, to 2-0 in bare-knuckle boxing. Romero, 49, drops to 1-1 in BKFC. Both men once fought for UFC titles, which made this one of the most talked about bare-knuckle fights of the year.
How Till beat Romero
This was not the wild slugfest many expected. The opening round was cautious, with Till finding his range from southpaw and landing the first clean straight left.
He picked up the pace in the second, landing one-twos and uppercuts while Romero stayed patient and looked for one big shot. That shot arrived at the end of the third, when Romero opened a nasty cut under Till’s eye.
Till bled heavily through the last two rounds but kept working from range and kept his output higher. Romero came forward in bursts and often tied Till up, yet he never put together enough sustained offence to swing the rounds. The cards reflected that.
Lorenzo Hunt crashes the celebration
The drama did not stop at the final bell. After Till called out possible opponents, BKFC champion Lorenzo Hunt climbed into the ring and the exchange nearly boiled over.
Hunt mocked Till’s performance in front of his friends and family. Till’s reply was blunt: he called Hunt “just a punch bag” and insisted Romero was the better fighter.
Till also named Mike Perry and Tommy Fury as fights he wants, so there is no shortage of options. No next bout has been confirmed.
Till’s bare-knuckle run so far
Till made his BKFC debut in May, knocking out Aaron Chalmers in the second round. Saturday was a very different test: a longer, more tactical fight against a far more experienced opponent, and one he had to finish with blood running down his face.
Elsewhere on the card, Jack Cullen won the BKFC middleweight title with a split decision over David Mundell. It was a busy night for British combat sports, with Johnny Fisher grinding out a majority decision at the Copper Box in London.
