Robert Whittaker was surprised and delighted to hear he had busted Darren Till’s knee during their showdown at UFC Fight Island.
Till and Whittaker produced a five-round war which Whittaker just about edged on the judges’ scorecards, 48-47.
The British fighter was dragged into dog fight by the former champion and revealed after the clash a stomp in the second round ‘blew his knee’ – something Whittaker was unaware of.
Whittaker was asked if he noticed Till was carrying a knee injury and he replied: ‘No, like how? With what? What I do? Stomp? Oh, ah. Going to stomp more often.
‘I want soccer kicks back! Honestly it’s a weapon I utilise. I think it’s a tricky kick, you have to time it well, there’s accuracy with that kick.
‘I threw it from a switch stance so I threw it with my right leg, if I’m not mistaken. It was a bit off putting, bit trickier.
‘That’s why it’s a chess mass, he’s so technical. We were both trying to wait for each other and counter each other and wait for each other to open up so we can capitalise on each other’s holes.
‘That’s why I had to chip away at his defence from the outside. I had the calf kick and the stomp.
‘I had to work on it. Not only does it do damage, it also racks up on the scorecards.’
Till was fighting at middleweight for just the second time in his UFC career and had hoped a win against Whittaker would secure him a title shot against Israel Adesanya.
The Liverpudlian, however, doesn’t think the loss hurts his standing in the division and announced he expected to have surgery on his knee.
‘I’m not that type of guy to make excuses,’ Till said in the post-fight press conference.
‘I have to give credit to Rob. In the second round he knee stomped me like I did to Stephen Thompson. They should be illegal.
‘No. It just blew my knee straight out – my knee just (blew) under me, crashed. I couldn’t – that was it for the whole fight.
‘I couldn’t do it the whole fight. I just had to fight. I hid the pain. I don’t think he recognized.
‘I don’t want to sit here and say, “My knee gone”. Whatever.
‘Maybe just stopped me bouncing a bit. It was a real good fight. I feel like I won it.
‘I feel like we both won it. We both won the fight. We both won.
‘It was a clinically neat match. Going to get a bit of surgery now. I want to get back in the game.
‘I’ll fix that, and there’s millions of fights out there for me.
‘I’m one of the top guys in this organisation, and I’m going to continue to be.’
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