Darren Till is staying at welterweight.
UFC president Dana White confirmed with ESPN on Wednesday that the recent title challenger will take on veteran Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC London on Saturday, March 16th at The O2 Arena. He also revealed that the co-main event will be another welterweight scrap, as submission specialist Gunnar Nelson faces off against rising contender Leon Edwards.
Till (17-1-1) fought reigning champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 228, losing by second-round submission in a non-competitive fight. It was the first defeat of the Liverpool native’s career, after which he indicated that he’d move up to middleweight for his next fight. Evidently that’s not the case, and he’ll remain in a division where he’s twice missed weight, but has picked up notable wins over Stephen Thompson and Donald Cerrone.
Masvidal (32-13) is on a two-fight losing streak, having dropped decisions to Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson, but the latter occurred way back in November 2017. “Gamebred” was originally lined up for a bout with Nick Diaz at UFC 235. That’s obviously not happening, but Till and Masvidal did have interest in fighting each other, and now it’s just two months away.
As for the co-main event, Nelson (17-3-1) fought just once in 2018 due to injury, but he made the most of it by bloodying and choking out Alex Oliveira at UFC 231. The Icelandic grappling standout has won three of his last four, all by submission. Edwards (15-3) is on a six-fight winning streak, with upcoming title challenger Kamaru Usman as the last man to beat him. The Englishman prevailed via five-round unanimous decision against Donald Cerrone in the UFC Singapore main event back in June 2018, and also has wins over Vicente Luque and Bryan Barberena during his current run, which sees him #10 in the latest UFC welterweight rankings, whereas Nelson is #12.
The entire UFC London fight card streams live on ESPN+. One other notable matchup on this event is a light heavyweight scrap title featuring Dominick Reyes against Volkan Oezdemir.