Darren Till wants Jake Paul next, and he says the only thing missing is a signature. On Monday the former UFC title challenger posted on X, “Waiting for the,” followed by a document emoji, then tagged Paul and told him to “stop fucking around.” He closed with a line that was equal parts pitch and jab: “Another MMA fighter for you to beat.”
Bloody Elbow reported that Till appeared to be suggesting he’s in talks for the bout. Neither Paul nor his team has publicly confirmed any negotiations in the reporting so far, so for now this is Till’s word and an emoji.
The timing makes sense from Till’s side. He beat Yoel Romero at BKFC 94 on September 26, his name is warm again, and Paul has already said he’d like to fight him. Paul recently laid out a 15-fight hit list that includes Tom Aspinall and Francis Ngannou, and he named Till as one of the opponents he wants to face before he retires.
View post on X
Paul’s own situation is murkier. He hasn’t boxed since last December, when Anthony Joshua knocked him out and broke his jaw. A fight with Till would put him back in familiar territory. According to Bloody Elbow, Till’s post referenced Paul’s wins over Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren, a run built almost entirely on men who made their names in a cage.
BKFC still has a say
Till is still under contract with BKFC, with one fight left on the three-bout deal he signed earlier this year. President Dave Feldman told Bloody Elbow’s Jamie Theodosi that he’s chasing a big name for Till’s next bare-knuckle outing, and the name he’s chasing is Tommy Fury. There’s a strict 14-day window to get that done, and there’s history to get past.
“Obviously, his family has some problems with Darren Till,” Feldman said. “That’s the one thing we’ve gotta get over. We’ll try to get over that in the next couple of weeks, but if we can’t, that fight is not gonna happen.”
He didn’t sound like a man ready to give up on it. “Maybe it will happen. Money talks in this business. Money erases a lot of bad feelings in this business.”
Feldman also framed Till as a fighter who has earned a payday. “He’s at a stage in his career where he’s accomplished a lot, he wants to make money, and he deserves to make money,” he said, adding that BKFC is “negotiating some other ones” beyond the remaining bout. He promised something “very, very exciting to announce for Darren Till” within the next three to four weeks.
So Till has two doors cracked open at once: a bare-knuckle promoter racing a deadline for Fury, and a boxing ring where Paul has already said his name out loud.
Quick take
The smartest thing in Till’s post is the list he typed out. Silva, Diaz, Perry, Woodley, Askren. He’s needling Paul by reciting his own résumé back to him, and he’s offering himself as the next line on it with a shrug emoji, which is about as honest as fight promotion gets. Till knows what these fights are, and he wants paying. If Paul wants a soft-landing comeback after the Joshua loss, Till is volunteering to be the name, but he’s also a Liverpool scrapper who just went through Yoel Romero, and that shouldn’t feel like a gimme to anyone coming back from a broken jaw. The Fury clock runs out in two weeks. Watch whether Feldman’s announcement or Paul’s reply arrives first.
