Darren Till couldn’t believe what he was watching on Saturday in his combat sports return.
The one-time UFC title challenger competed for the first time since December 2022 when he made his boxing debut in a four-round exhibition match against Mohammad Mutie at Social Knockout 3. While Till ultimately emerged victorious, that wasn’t the biggest story. Instead, a bizarre scene unfolded after Mutie complained of a punch to the back of the head midway through the second round, leading to a chaotic brawl overtaking the ring.
“Mate, you’re an MMA fighter and you’re a fighter. This shit happens,” Till said Monday on The MMA Hour. “You’re rolling around on the floor for 20 minutes? Like, paramedics in there? And I’m just looking in disbelief, I’m like, ‘Is this really happening in my return?’ I just couldn’t believe it. I just think he just wanted a way out. He just felt my power in there, he knew I was finding my range, I was probably going to knock him out in that round. That’s what I was thinking in my head. And then, yeah, get the win off that, and then hell ensued.”
Till, 31, confirmed he inadvertently hit Mutie in back the head during a punching exchange but remains baffled by the scene that followed.
After rolling around in seeming distress in the center of the ring, Mutie stood up and aggressively charged at Till. The Liverpudlian flicked out a left hand to keep Mutie at bay, and things quickly devolved from there, with both teams rushing into the ring and kicking off a wild fracas. At one point, Mutie even wrestled Till to the canvas with a single-leg takedown. The contest was ultimately called a second-round TKO in Till’s favor.
“I’m just chilling. I’m just watching him on the floor, just like rolling around. I’m like, this guy’s not a fighter, he’s just a coward,” Till recounted. “And then he comes over to me, he’s like, ‘I wanted to fight, the ref didn’t let me fight.’ I was like, ‘Mate, save it.’
“I said, ‘I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear excuses. Just jog on. See you later.’ And then he started shouting stuff and that. I said, ‘Mate, look, I think you’re a coward.’ And then I think he thought that, like, people were going to hold him back. He ran at me, and as he ran at me, I just went back to the striking days.”
According to Till, both the promoter of the event and the local police in Dubai called Mutie “a disgrace” for the debacle. Till said someone even kicked him amid the craziness and he’s not happy about it, but at the end of the day, all that matters is he emerged unscathed.
After accepting the bout on a lark as a means to get his wet feet in boxing and jump back into action after his July 20 bout with Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. fell through, Till is choosing to look at his viral debut through the lens of all press being good press in the fight game.
“You know what? The guy probably did us a favor, because look online,” Till said. “The whole world is talking about it, so it’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. Darren Till is always in the middle of some shite.
“But shit happens, mate. I’ve been brawls all my life. I’ve been amongst the chaos all my life. So look, it’s just another day in the office. Got the first [boxing] win ... and now all these big fights, what I’ve been campaigning for, they’re going to come. So all in all, mate, bit of a mad week, last-minute fight, all good.”
Among those potentially big fights, Till continued to call out Mike Perry and Jake Paul. He also floated fellow UFC veterans Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal as possible opponents for his next outing in the sweet science.
Notably, Diaz and Masvidal met in the boxing ring on Saturday as well, with Diaz winning a 10-round majority decision. That fight was Masvidal’s first boxing match since 2005.
Of course, Till has his own history with Masvidal, having previously suffered a knockout loss to “Gamebred” in the UFC back in 2019.
But regardless of where he goes from here, there’s one name Till surely won’t be facing in his next boxing venture — and that’s the “coward” Mutie himself.
“There was a definitive winner, mate. The guy was rolling around for 20 minutes on the floor,” Till said when asked about a rematch. “He’s had his five minutes of fame. That was just a get-me-out-quick thing. He was never, ever going to win the fight. He was never going to do anything. He knows that as well. Even before the fight, he knew that.”
