Morning Report: After watching weight-cut video, ABC president says Darren Till’s coaches are ‘going to get him killed’

On Thursday, a video surfaced of Darren Till struggling to make weight for his main event bout against Stephen Thompson at UFC Liverpool. The video chronicled Till’s attempt to do cut down to 171 pounds and showcased some harrowing moments, including a period where Till had to stop cutting weight because he lost his vision due to dehydration. Needless to say, the video stirred up a lot of discussion about the continued prevalence of weight cutting in the sport. It also caught the eye of the head of the Association of Boxing Commissions.

Speaking to MMAJunkie about the incident, Mike Mazzulli was “appalled” at the video and the actions of Till’s team, and that those involved should be suspended for not stepping in sooner to stop Till from seriously injuring himself.

“I was appalled seeing seven people sit there and push this kid to the point where he lost his vision,” Mazzulli said. “They should suspend those corner people that tried to help him cut that kind of weight.”

Till was unsuccessful in his cut to welterweight, coming in at 174.5 pounds. The fight was contested at a catchweight and Till won a controversial unanimous decision, potentially setting him up for a title fight in the future where he would no longer have the one-pound allowance, something that could prove difficult for the fighter who has bragged about how much weight he cuts to make the 170-pound limit.

Weight cutting has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years as some commissions have begun to take steps to curb the practice of excessive weight cutting in MMA. Last year, the California State Athletic Commission even passed a 10-point plan to reign in the practice, including mandating some fighters with a history of weight issues compete up a weight class from their preferred one. Till would be a prime candidate for such an edict. And while Mazzulli doesn’t say he’d make Till move up to middleweight, he does say that something is going to have to change or else Till’s coaches will end up killing him.

“They think it’s OK to do what they did to that kid?” Mazzulli said. “They’re going to get him killed. Right now, I am so upset at this whole industry.”

“You’re going to be sitting there with a girlfriend, with parents, who lost their kid to something so stupid, for no apparent reason. What’s going to happen is you’re going to have a mother and a father losing their child over weight-cutting to fight – not in a fight.”