Darren Till Tore His ACL Before Brunson Fight, Michael Bisping Says

British sports analyst Michael Bisping said Darren Till had a big injury before stepping in the octagon with Derek Brunson Saturday.

Bisping, who is also a retired mixed martial artist, claims that Till suffered a torn ACL beforehand, which potentially hindered him.

“I went backstage to see Darren after the fight, he was very disappointed of course, but he was a man and holding it together. He was frustrated and understandably so…,” Bisping said. “Perhaps I’m breaking guy code here, but there was an injury coming into that fight, he tore his ACL about 10 weeks ago, and he never mentioned it.”

Brunson defeated Till, who was looking to get back in the winning column, in the third round via submission rear-naked choke. He has suffered defeat four times out of the last five contests.

“It’s an excuse, it’s a reason, whatever you want to call it, he never mentioned it, and I’m sure Derek had problems as well,” Bisping added. “… Of course, with that injury, it would’ve hampered his performance, but still, you can’t take away from Derek Brunson on that night, Darren chose to step in”

Brunson is on his fifth win.

As it turned out, Bisping was right about Brunson’s injuries. He mentioned in the interview, he suffered a broken ribs injury after receiving a heavy body kick by some heavyweight from his gym.

He could not spar before the fight, but both fighters decided to step into the octagon to use the opportunity.

“But yeah, I thought I broke my ribs,” Brunson said. “The last three weeks to the camp, I couldn’t spare. I had to do conditioning, hit pads, I had to take a week off. So I only had two weeks to prepare. It was a little tough, but that’s a part of the fight game.”