Darren Till explains his version of the viral boxing fight: ‘I couldn’t believe it’

Darren Till couldn’t believe his eyes on Saturday when he made his return to combat sports.

The former UFC title challenger competed for the first time since December 2022, when he made his boxing debut in a four-round exhibition bout 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 about a punch to the back of the head midway through the second round, leading to a chaotic brawl in the ring.

“Dude, you’re an MMA fighter and you’re a fighter. This shit happens,” Till said Monday on MMA Time“You roll around on the floor for 20 minutes? Like you’re a paramedic? And I’m staring in disbelief, thinking, ‘Is this really going to happen when I come back?’ I couldn’t believe it. I think he just wanted an out. He could feel 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, I won that one, and then all hell broke loose.”

Till, 31, confirmed he inadvertently hit Mutie in the back of the head during a punch-up, but remains baffled by the scene that followed.

After rolling around in the middle of the ring, Mutie got back up and attacked Till aggressively. The Liverpudlian threw a left hand to keep Mutie at bay, and things quickly escalated from there, with both teams rushing the ring and starting a wild brawl. At one point, Mutie even managed to pin Till to the ground with a single-leg takedown. The fight was eventually ruled a second-round TKO in Till’s favour.

“I relax. I look at him on the ground, like he’s rolling around on the ground. I think to myself, this guy’s not a fighter, he’s just a coward,” Till says. “And then he comes up to me and says, ‘I wanted to fight, the referee wouldn’t let me fight.’ I say, ‘Buddy, stop.’”

“I said, ‘I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear excuses. Keep running. See you later.’ And then he started yelling stuff and stuff. I said, ‘Buddy, listen, I think you’re a coward.’ And then I think he thought people were going to hold him back. He ran toward me, and as he was running toward me, I went back to the strike days.”

According to Till, the event promoter and local Dubai police both called Mutie a “disgrace” for the debacle. Till said someone even kicked him in the middle of the madness and he wasn’t happy about it, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that he got away with it.

Having accepted the fight by chance, as a way to get acquainted with boxing and get back into action after his July 20 fight against Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. fell through, Till is choosing to view his viral debut through the prism of good press in the fight world.

“You know what? The guy probably did us a favor, because look on the Internet,” Till said. “The whole world is talking about it, so that’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. Darren Till is always in the middle of shit.”

“But shit happens, man. I’ve been in fights my whole life. I’ve been in chaos my whole life. So, listen, it’s just another day at the office. I got my first win (in boxing)… and now all these big fights, that I’ve been campaigning for, are coming. So all in all, man, kind of a crazy week, last-minute fight, all good.”

Among those potentially big fights, Till went on to mention Mike Perry and Jake Paul. He also mentioned fellow UFC veterans Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal as possible opponents for his next outing in the world of science.

It’s worth noting that Diaz and Masvidal also met in the boxing ring on Saturday, 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 in 2019.

But no matter where he goes from here, there’s one name Till surely won’t be facing in his next boxing adventure – and that’s the ‘coward’ Mutie himself.

“There was a definite winner, buddy. The guy rolled around on the floor for 20 minutes,” Till said when asked if he could expect a rematch. “He had his five minutes of fame. It was just a matter of getting me out quick. He was never, ever going to win the fight. He was never going to do anything. He knows that too. Even before the fight, he knew that.”