Darren Till isn’t fighting Jake Paul, but BKFC president David Feldman says the promotion already has something lined up to fill the hole. Feldman told MMA Fighting that a big-name opponent for Till will be part of an announcement coming in the next couple of weeks, and he floated the idea of staging the fight in a soccer stadium in Liverpool.
“We’re going to have some big names for Darren Till in the mix very, very shortly,” Feldman said. “One of them will be part of our announcement we’re going to make in the next couple weeks.”
Till had been in talks to box Paul until Paul picked PFL welterweight Cedric Doumbe for his return to boxing. MMA Mania reported that the Paul vs. Doumbe fight is set for Christmas Eve. That left the former UFC title challenger without the crossover payday, though he has hardly been idle. Till is 2-0 under the BKFC banner since moving to bare knuckle, and he originally signed a three-fight deal with the promotion.
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Feldman made it clear he doesn’t see this as a one-and-done relationship. He said BKFC holds options on Till’s next few fights, and that the deal was structured with room for him to chase a fight or two outside the promotion that could pay very well.
“We have options,” Feldman said. “There is going to be a longer relationship with BKFC and Darren Till.”
There is precedent for letting a fighter go earn elsewhere. BKFC allowed Mike Perry to book his own boxing match with Paul, which pushed back Perry’s return to the bare-knuckle ring. Feldman said those decisions get made case by case, and he laid out the math plainly. If BKFC can’t book Till for a long stretch, the outside fight makes sense. If the promotion has a fight ready, Till fights for BKFC.
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“If we have to lay him off for eight, nine months, it’s only fair to let him go out and make a payday because the momentum’s going to be killed anyway if we don’t have a fight for him,” Feldman said.
He also gave Till real credit against Paul, saying “I think that Darren Till can hang in there with Jake Paul, has a very good chance of beating him as well,” before adding that the promotion is “not going to cut our nose off to spite our face” if it has a fight that works. “If we have something that works for him, he’s going to do that first.”
Nothing is signed yet. Beyond the Liverpool stadium idea, Feldman said Till could also come back to the United States for a future BKFC appearance. With BKFC 100 and the next KnuckleMania both on the 2027 calendar, Till is an obvious candidate for one of those cards.
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My take: Feldman just told you the order of operations, and the Paul talks were the backup plan. BKFC has a 2-0 British star with options on his contract and a hometown crowd that would fill a football ground, so the smart play is to book him in Liverpool before anyone else gets the chance. If the announcement lands in the next two weeks like Feldman says, watch the opponent’s name more than the venue. A real name in front of a Liverpool stadium crowd is a bigger night for BKFC than anything Paul was going to offer.
