UFC 244: Darren Till Victorious in 185 Debut

One judge saw it differently, but Darren Till did enough tonight at UFC 244 to narrowly beat Kelvin Gastelum in his middleweight debut.

Darren Till works his way to a decision win

Gastelum looked to clinch up early in the fight and Till stayed busy with leg kicks. Much of the opening round saw Till firing in kicks while Gastelum tried to close the distance. Gastelum came out pressuring in round two, but Till maintained his distance and landed more kicks to the leg. Mid round, Till took an eye poke, but he said he was okay to continue. Some boos started to ring out late in round two, as neither man was landing much. Gastelum changed levels in search of a takedown before the round ended, but Till defended nicely.

Both welterweights picked up the pace early into round three, and Till negated another TD attempt. Gastelum scored with a nice left hook moments later, and Till came with a spinning elbow not long after. Late into round three, Till nearly scored a clean TD, before Gastelum took him down with one minute left. Till quickly got back to his feet, however, before Gastelum scored another TD.

UFC 244 results

Here are the results so far for UFC 244, which is taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Darren Till def. Kelvin Gastelum via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 30-27)

Stephen Thompson def. Vicente Luque via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-27)

Derrick Lewis def. Blagoy Ivanov via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Kevin Lee def. Gregor Gillespie via KO (headkick) R1, 2:47

Corey Anderson def. Johnny Walker via TKO (punches) R1, 2:07

Shane Burgos def. Makwan Amirkhani via TKO (punches) R3, 4:32

Edmen Shahbazyan def. Brad Tavares via KO (headkick) R1, 2:27

Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Andrei Arlovski via KO (punches) R1, 0:29

Katlyn Chookagian def. Jennifer Maia via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Lyman Good def. Chance Rencountre via TKO (strikes) R3, 2:03

Hakeem Dawodu def. Julio Arce via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)