It’s finally official! After a ton of speculation, changes in dates and venues. It was recently announced that British UFC star and all-around comedian Darren “The Gorilla” Till will be taking on the always dangerous and perennial contender Derek Brunson at UFC Vegas 36. Taking place at the UFC APEX center on September 4th, the UFC had initially hoped to hold the card in London on August 14th but changed plans due to COVID protocols.
A Look at the War: Darren Till vs Derek Brunson
Darren Till (18-3-1) Injuries have kept Darren Till out of the Octagon ever since a loss to “The Reaper” Robert Whittaker (23-5-0) back in July 2020. Since that time Till has been scheduled to fight both Jack Hermansson (22-6-0) and Marvin Vettori (17-4-1) but was forced to withdraw from both, first for a knee injury than a broken collarbone.
In a strange turn of events Till was replaced by a surging Kevin Holland (21-7-0) in both of those fights. After dropping his last 3 out of 4 bouts, Darren Till is hoping to right the ship and get back to his winning ways.
Derek Brunson (22-7-0) On the other side of the coin, we have Derek Brunson, who is riding high on a 4 fight win streak. His most recent fight was a unanimous decision win over the aforementioned Kevin Holland back in March of this year. With convincing wins over Edmen Shahbazyan (11-2-0), Ian Heinisch (14-5-0), and Elias Theodorou (18-3-0) Brunson has been on a tear in the middleweight division since his 1st round loss to now champion Israel Adesanya (21-1-0) back in 2018.
With Brunson being ranked 5th and Till ranked 7th in the middleweight division, this is sure to be an exciting bout as there are possible title implications on the line. As you probably expected from a card that would be the UFC’s first return to the United Kingdom since March of 2019, the bouts will heavily feature a lot of European and international talent, with announced fights listed below.
UFC Vegas 36 Overview
UFC Vegas 36 is set for September 4th, as previously mentioned. Fights may fall off or get added to the card, and the order of bouts is subject to change. Here are the fights currently scheduled for UFC Vegas 36:
- Middleweight bout: Darren Till vs. Derek Brunson
- Light Heavyweight bout: Khalil Rountree Jr. vs. Modestas Bukauskas
- Light Heavyweight bout: Alexander Gustafsson vs. Paul Craig
- Bantamweight bout: Nathaniel Wood vs. Jonathan Martinez
- Women’s Flyweight bout: Molly McCann vs. Ji Yeon Kim
- Featherweight bout: Charles Jourdain vs. Lerone Murphy
- Lightweight bout: Marc Diakiese vs. Rafael Alves
- Lightweight bout: Paddy Pimblett vs. Luigi Vendramini
- Bantamweight bout: Jack Shore vs. Said Nurmagomedov
- Women’s Flyweight bout: Mandy Böhm vs. Ariane Lipski
- Light Heavyweight bout: Magomed Ankalaev vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- Middleweight bout: Marc-André Barriault vs. Dalcha Lungiambula
- Welterweight bout: David Zawada vs. Sergey Khandozhko
- Flyweight bout: Alex Perez vs. Matt Schnell
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