Darren Till has certainly been known to fire off verbal shots at his fellow welterweights, but it looks like we shouldn’t expect him doing so with Jorge Masvidal, as they prepare to fight next month.

Till has been booked to fight the longtime contender at the UFC’s March 16th card in London. The fight materialized after Masvidal volunteered to face the massive welterweight in his home country, and at a time when Till has been exchanging verbal jabs with the likes of Ben Askren.

Well, at a recent presser to promote the upcoming card, Till had this to say, while discussing why he hasn’t been slinging trash talk with Masvidal (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“It’s just one of this fights where there’s not a lot of bull(expletive) involved – where it’s someone like me who’s game as (expletive),” Till said. “He is game as (expletive), so I don’t really need to sit here and talk a lot of (expletive) or disrespect him in any way.”

“I think he’s got that experience,” Till admitted. “I wouldn’t really say he’s afraid of me. I’d say he’s experienced.

“…Do I want to knock him out?” Till asked. “Yeah. I want to viciously knock him out. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t respect the guy. As I said, I’m game as (expletive), and he’s game as (expletive), and I’m coming for war on the 16th of March.”

When you’re facing someone like Masvidal, who has battled many top tier fighters over the years and scored some big wins, your options in terms of disrespecting “Gamebred” are indeed, somewhat slim. Case in point, while Masvidal has five losses in his last 10 fights, four of those were via split decision to Demian Maia, Al Iaquinta, Lorenz Larkin and Benson Henderson. Most recently, in November, 2017, he lost via UD to Stephen Thompson.

This is a massive fight for both men. If Masvidal can win, he’ll take a big step towards title contention in the welterweight division. Till, meanwhile, needs a victory to stay in that mix. A loss to the much smaller Masvidal, despite the latter’s toughness and experience, would be a significant setback.

Here is the line-up so far for UFC London.

UFC on ESPN+ 5 Main Event:
170 lbs.: Darren Till vs. Jorge Masvidal

UFC on ESPN+ 5 Main Card, Prelims:
170 lbs.: Leon Edwards vs. Gunnar Nelson
205 lbs.: Volkan Oezdemir vs. Dominick Reyes
170 lbs.: Danny Roberts vs. Claudio Silva
125 lbs.: Priscila Cachoeira vs. Molly McCann
185 lbs.: Jack Marshman vs. John Phillips
185 lbs.: Tom Breese vs. Cezar Ferreira
205 lbs.: Saparbeg Safarov vs. Gokhan Saki

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